Modelling in-ground wood decay using time-series retrievals from the 5^th European climate reanalysis (ERA5-Land)

ABSTRACT

This article presents models to predict the time until mechanical failure of in-ground wooden test specimens resulting from fungal decay. Historical records of decay ratings were modelled by remotely sensed data from ERA5-Land. In total, 2,570 test specimens of 16 different wood species were exposed at 21 different test sites, representing three continents and climatic conditions from sub-polar to tropical, spanning a period from 1980 until 2022. To obtain specimen decay ratings over their exposure time, inspections were conducted in mostly annual and sometimes bi-annual intervals. For each specimen’s exposure period, a laboratory developed dose–response model was populated using remotely sensed soil moisture and temperature data retrieved from ERA5-Land. Wood specimens were grouped according to natural durability rankings to reduce the variability of in-ground wood decay rate between wood species. Non-linear, sigmoid-shaped models were then constructed to describe wood decay progression as a function of daily accumulated exposure to soil moisture and temperature conditions (dose). Dose, a mechanistic weighting of daily exposure conditions over time, generally performed better than exposure time alone as a predictor of in-ground wood decay progression. The open-access availability of remotely sensed soil-state data in combination with wood specimen data proved promising for in-ground wood decay predictions.

KEYWORDS:

• Fungal wood decay
• dose–response model
• IRG-WP durability database
• geospatial modelling
• soil moisture
• soil temperature

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge support by the Open Access Publication Funds of the University of Göttingen, the IRG-WP durability database and all of its contributors, as well as Joshua Rabke and Antonia Möller, for their role in converting wood decay data from the IRG-WP durability database into a common format.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

Conceived and designed the analysis: B.N.M., M.S., and P.B.vN.

Collected the data: B.N.M., P.B.vN, and C.B.

Contributed data or analysis tools: B.N.M., M.S., P.B.vN, J.N., and C.B.

Performed the analysis: M.S., P.B.vN., and B.N.M.

Visualisation: M.S., B.N.M., and P.B.vN.

Wrote the paper: B.N.M., M.S., and P.B.vN.

All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, B.N.M., upon reasonable request.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/22797254.2023.2264473.

Additional information

Funding

B.N.M. received research funding through the research project C(h)emSleeper (873191) supported by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG). M.S. received funding through the cooperation project “BefahrGut”, funded by the Landesbetrieb Wald und Holz NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia), through the Forstliches Bildungszentrum in Arnsberg, Germany, and by the Eva Mayr-Stihl Stiftung. P.B.vN. and C.B received funding through the research project WoodLCC, supported under the umbrella of ERA-NET, Cofund ForestValue by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport (MIZS) - Slovenia; The Ministry of the Environment (YM) – Finland; Research Council of Norway (RCN) – Norway; The Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning (FORMAS), Swedish Energy Agency (SWEA), Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (Vinnova) – Sweden; Estonian Ministry of the Environment; Estonian Research Council; Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) and Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR) – Germany. ForestValue has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement N° 773324. J.N. received funding from FORMAS (Swedish research council for sustainable development) [Grant No. 2021-02053].