Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2013
Authors
Christian Brischke Christian Welzbacher Antje Gellerich Susanne Bollmus Miha Humar Katharina Plaschkies Wolfram Scheiding Gry Alfredsen Joris Van Acker Imke De WidtAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Even if it is well established that acetylation of wood by the use of acetic anhydride is able to impart a significant degree of decay resistance, more evidence is needed to understand the mechanisms by which acetylated wood is protected from fungal decay. The aim of this paper was to study if a standardised leaching procedure with water (EN 84) vs. no leaching affected the Postia placenta decay of acetylated samples. Three different acetylation levels (low, medium and high) were tested in addition to untreated Southern yellow pine as control. The samples were harvested at two different stages of fungal incubation; 4 and 28 weeks. We compared changes in mass loss, wood moisture content, fungal biomass measured indirectly as fungal DNA, plus a small gene expression screening including five different genes. Generally there were not any striking differences between the leached and the non-leached samples. For the acetylated samples a statistically significant difference in mass loss between leached and non-leached samples were found at low and medium acetylation level after 28 weeks. Wood moisture content differed significantly between leached and non-leached acetylated samples for low acetylation level after 4 weeks and for at low and medium levels after 28 weeks. The gene expression levels were generally significantly lower after 4 weeks compared to 28 weeks of incubation. After 28 weeks no significant difference was found between leached and non-leached acetylated samples for any of the measured genes.
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Christian Brischke Linda Meyer Gry Alfredsen Mika Humar Lesley Francis Per Otto Flæte Pia Larsson-BrelidAbstract
Besides its inherent resistance against degrading organisms, the durability of timber is infl uenced by design details and climatic conditions, making it diffi cult to treat wood durability as an absolute value. Durability classifi cation is, therefore, based on comparing performance indicators between the timber in question and a reference timber. These relative values are grouped and related to durability classes, which can refer to a high range of service-lives. The insuffi cient comparability of such durability records has turned out to be a key challenge for service-life prediction. This paper reviewed literature data, based on service-life measures, not masked by a durability classifi cation. It focused on natural durability of timber tested in the fi eld above-ground. Additionally, results from ongoing aboveground durability studies in Europe and Australia are presented and have been used for further analysis. In total, 163 durability recordings from 31 different test sites worldwide based on ten different test methods have been considered for calculation of resistance factors. The datasets were heterogeneous in quality and quantity; the resulting resistance factors suffered from high variation. In conclusion, an open platform for scientifi c exchange is needed to increase the amount of available service-life related data.
Authors
Imke De Widt Jan Van den Bulcke Christian Brischke Christian Welzbacher Antje Gellerich Susanne Bollmus Miha Humar Katharina Plaschkies Wolfram Scheiding Gry Alfredsen Joris Van AckerAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Rot fungi are a major problem in the construction sector, and method to study under which moisture and temperature coefficients they grow are therefore of significant interest. Measurements of heat production rate have been made on wood samples with the brown rot fungus Postia placenta at different moisture contents (MCs). The results clearly show the heat production rate (ameasure of respiration rate and fungal activity) is moisture-dependent. For most cases, less heat was produced when the MC was decreased, and more heat was produced when the MC was increased. It was also found that when the MC increased after a dry period, the increase in activity was significantly delayed. However, if the moisture state was then kept constant at a high level, the activity slowly increased, showing that the fungi need time to recover back to the original activity level after drying. Isothermal calorimetry is a measurement technique well suited for the study of the activity of wood-decaying fungi as a function of temperature and moisture content.
Authors
Jody Jellison Barry Goodell Gry Alfredsen Daniel Eastwood Geoffrey Daniel Simon Craig Kenneth GraceAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
Local climate conditions have a major influence on the biological decomposition of wood. To examine the influence of different temperature regimes on wood decay caused by the brown rot fungus Postia placenta in wood with differing natural durability, sapwood (sW) and heartwood (hW) of Scots pine, inoculated mini-blocks were incubated for up to 10 weeks at temperatures conducive or above optimal to wood decay. We profiled mass loss (ML) and wood composition, and accompanying changes in wood colonization and transcript level regulation of fungal candidate genes. The suppressive effect of suboptimal temperature on wood decay caused by P. placenta appeared more pronounced in Scots pine hW with increased durability than in sW with low decay resistance. The differences between sW and hW were particularly pronounced for cultures incubated at 30°C: unlike sW, hW showed no ML, poor substrate colonization and marker gene transcript level profiles indicating a starvation situation. As brown rot fungi show considerable species-specific variation in temperature optima and ability to mineralize components that contribute to wood durability, interactions between these factors will continue to shape the fungal communities associated to wood in service.