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The activity of rot fungi (Postia placenta) during drying and rewetting cycles measured by isothermal calorimetry

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Author

  • Lars Wadsö
  • Sanne Johansson
  • Annica Pilgard
  • Gry Alfredsen

Summary, in English

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 (a measure 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.

Publishing year

2013

Language

English

Pages

536-540

Publication/Series

Engineering in Life Sciences

Volume

13

Issue

6

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Materials Engineering

Keywords

  • Brown rot
  • Early decay
  • Heat production rate
  • Isothermal calorimetry
  • Relative humidity

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1618-2863