Evaluation and modeling of fungi towards wood degradation

Abstract

ABSTRACT Fungi play a significant role in wood fiber degradation since they possess enzymatic tools for the degradation of recalcitrant plant polymers. The study aims to demonstrate the interactive fungal traits when they grow together and its development with total dead wood fiber degradation speed. A lab experiment was designed to describe decomposition rates and fungal properties using nonlinear fitting model and logistic equation from preliminary data sets. The degradation speed of five (A, B, C, D, and E) different types of fungi with different growth rates were calculated at various relative humidity’s (35, 50, 65, 80, and 95 g.kg−). Results showed that the mycelium length of fungus A, has faster ideal growth rate than that of fungus B, with ecological niche width A < B. Besides this the growth rate of fungus 1 was vg1 = 0.12 and the environmental-holding capacity k1 = 3000; vg2 = 0.15 and k2 = 2000 for fungus 2. Comparing the results of fiber decomposition with a single fungus, we were able to find that the overall efficiency of the two-fungal system decomposition model was higher in a defined environment. Besides this the successfully simulated the competitive relationship between different species of fungi and the effect of different environments on the decomposition rate of fungi, with a good fit and in accordance with the biological laws. Our model is well generalizable and can be extended to multiple environmental variables (light, temperature, and heat) with good accuracy.