Abstract
Biodeterioration caused by filamentous fungi is often a threat to the architectural heritage (i.e. tombs and historic sites). To specifically understand the deterioration phenomena caused by microorganisms in tombs and how these are shaped due to various environmental factors, the fungal communities in the coffin chamber of the Chinese emperor Yang (BC 569–618) were investigated at different heights using denaturant gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprinting. The associated environmental conditions, such as humidity, temperature, height and illumination, were also assessed. The results showed that a great diversity of fungal species (Cordyceps, Fusarium, Harpochytrium, Emericellopsis, Volutella, Cladosporium, Stachybotrys, Trichoderma, Cochlonema and two unknown fungal species) was present in emperor Yang’s coffin chamber. The predominant species were Stachybotrys, Fusarium, Trichoderma and Cochlonema. Redundancy analysis (RDA) indicated that humidity, temperature, height and illumination were the most significantly related factors shaping the fungal communities. Humidity showed the highest degree of variance description (19.2%) than all other environmental factors, followed by illumination (18.3%) and height (12.8%). Furthermore, fungal richness and diversity indices showed a positive correlation with humidity (p < 0.05). These results help in understanding the fungal community in tombs, promoting the mitigation of deterioration phenomena of such building heritage for the present and future.
Highlights
Brick masonry structure is the most widespread building material that accounts for a major fraction of the ancient architectural history worldwide
The fungal community composition developed on the walls of different sections of the tomb is investigated via denaturant gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) fingerprinting technique
Microorganism colonization is hard to be controlled[10,17], this study investigates the possibility for mitigation of such deterioration phenomena of brick masonry structure heritage, from the perspective of controlling the microorganisms that could be developed or not by manipulating environmental factors
Summary
Brick masonry structure is the most widespread building material that accounts for a major fraction of the ancient architectural history worldwide. The main drawback of such masonry is the fact that is prone to deterioration due to its porous and rough surface[1] Environmental factors such as sunlight, temperature, water content, rain, wind and relative humidity contribute to that. The underground part of brick masonry is exposed to high water content due to the high underground water table (two to three meters underground) present at the region of Yangzhou Biodeterioration of this tomb became the largest worry after the initial understanding of its impact as well as the challenging need for preservation. Microorganism colonization is hard to be controlled[10,17], this study investigates the possibility for mitigation of such deterioration phenomena of brick masonry structure heritage, from the perspective of controlling the microorganisms that could be developed or not by manipulating environmental factors
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