The Mountain Hemlock (MH) zone includes all subalpine forests along British Columbia’s coast. It occurs at elevations where most precipitation falls as snow and the growing season is less than 4 months long. The zone includes the continuous forest of the forested subzones and the tree islands of the parkland subzones (Figure 1). Old-growth stands are populated by mountain hemlock, Pacific silver fir, and Alaska yellow-cedar, and are among the least-disturbed ecosystems in the world. Canopy trees grow slowly and are commonly older than 600 years, while some Alaska yellow-cedars may be up to 2000 years old. Early regeneration failures followed slashburning and the planting of unsuitable species. Currently, the most successful and feasible option for reforesting cutovers is natural regeneration with a mix of the three main tree species, but uncertainties remain about the temporal and spatial pattern of regeneration, changes in species composition, and the time required for stand establishment after cutting. Our study addressed these concerns by examining regeneration patterns on 6 sites that were clearcut 11-12 years prior to sampling and left to regenerate naturally. The sites were located at the lower limits of the zone in the Tetrahedron Range, near Sechelt, at elevations from 1060-1100m.

The Mountain Hemlock (MH) zone includes all subalpine forests along British Columbia’s coast. It occurs at elevations where most precipitation falls as snow and the growing season is less than 4 months long. The zone includes the continuous forest of the forested subzones and the tree islands of the parkland subzones (Figure 1). Old-growth stands are populated by mountain hemlock, Pacific silver fir, and Alaska yellow-cedar, and are among the least-disturbed ecosystems in the world. Canopy trees grow slowly and are commonly older than 600 years, while some Alaska yellow-cedars may be up to 2000 years old. Understanding regeneration patterns in the MH zone has become increasingly important as logging continues towards higher elevations of the zone where snowpacks are deeper.

Ce mémoire de doctorat rassemble les travaux réalisés dans le cadre d’une étude analytique approfondie et systématique des substances à odeur boisée. Ces substances définissent une famille d’ingrédients unanimement appréciés pour leurs notes puissantes et recherchés par les parfumeurs pour composer les accords parmi les plus emblématiques de la profession. Les matières premières inscrites au programme de cette étude sont les essences de Gaïac, d’Araucaria, de Patchouli, de Cyprès Jaune d’Alaska, de Vétiver et d’Agarwood, ainsi que certains de leurs produits dérivés. La plupart de ces matières premières sont couramment utilisées par l’industrie du parfum. Leur spécificité provient de leur composition chimique très largement dominée par les dérivés sesquiterpéniques, conférant ainsi à ces extraits une complexité moléculaire indéniable. Les principaux objectifs de cette thèse de doctorat ont consisté à améliorer la connaissance de ces matières premières en termes de composition chimique, à déterminer autant que possible les composés odorants contribuant à leur odeur, et enfin d’explorer d’éventuelles voies de valorisation pour ces mêmes ingrédients à l’échelle industrielle.La méthodologie analytique développée tout au long de l’étude a nécessité l’utilisation combinée d’un large éventail de techniques chromatographiques, spectrométriques et spectroscopiques pour parvenir à caractériser ces matières premières au plus près et à réaliser l’isolement de leurs constituants inconnus. Ainsi, ces travaux s’articulent autour de quatre outils centraux : la chromatographie gazeuse bidimensionnelle intégrale couplée à la spectrométrie de masse (GC × GC–MS), la chromatographie gazeuse couplée à l’olfactométrie (GC–O), la chromatographie gazeuse semi-préparative (GC prép.) et la résonance magnétique nucléaire (RMN). Près de 190 composés ont été isolés et caractérisés dont 107 sont décrits pour la première fois comme constituants d’extraits naturels. / This Ph.D. dissertation sums up the work carried out as part of a thorough and systematic analytical study of woody-scented substances. These substances define a family of ingredients unanimously appreciated for their powerful notes, and sought by perfumers to compose some of the most emblematic accords in perfumery. The raw materials included in the frame of this study are the oils of Guaiac, Araucaria, Patchouli, Alaska Yellow Cypress, Vetiver, and Agarwood, as well as some of their by-products. Most of these raw materials are ingredients commonly used by the perfume industry. Their chemical specificity comes from their composition largely dominated by sesquiterpene derivatives, giving these extracts an undeniable molecular complexity. The main objectives of this Ph.D. thesis were to improve the knowledge of these raw materials in terms of chemical composition, to determine as much as possible the odorous compounds contributing to their odor, and finally to explore possible ways of valorization for these products on an industrial scale.The analytical methodology developed throughout this study required the combined use of a wide range of chromatographic, spectrometric, and spectroscopic techniques in order to characterize these raw materials as precisely as possible and achieve the isolation of their unknown constituents. Thus, our work revolved around four central tools: comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC × GC-MS), gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC–O), preparative capillary-gas chromatography (pc-GC) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Almost 190 compounds have been isolated and characterized, 107 of which are described for the first time as constituents of natural extracts.