Investigating the spatio-temporal risk of in-ground fungal wood decay over Europe using the 5th European reanalysis (ERA5-Land)

The spatio-temporal heterogeneity of in-ground wood decay risk is important to service life planning of timber components. To achieve a desired service life in years related to a component's expected performance, means accurately matching the durability characteristics of the wooden material to the exposure location. In this context, the integration of service life planning of timber with remote-sensing data services shows promise. Soil moisture and temperature data from the ERA5-Land repository were extracted for Europe over a 9 x 9 km point grid, between January 1993 and December 2022. The data were then appropriately scaled and used as input to an in-ground wood decay dose-response model. The resulting hazard map plotted dose to indicate annual in-ground wood decay risk, as a function of exposure to daily soil temperature and soil moisture conditions. Regions with low decay risk reflected temperature-limiting, oxygen-limiting or moisture-limiting soil conditions, all of which are unsuitable for fungal decay processes. Temporal investigations of the processed data revealed fungal growth windows influenced by seasonality. By better understanding the effects and occurrences of these unfavourable fungal decay conditions, the underlying dose-response model can be refined to deliver more accurate predictions of service life for in-ground wooden components.