AWPA biodeterioration hazard map revisited

Grant T. Kirker; Amy B. Bishell; William J. Hickey

Treesearch

AWPA biodeterioration hazard map revisited

Informally Refereed

Authors:

Grant T. Kirker, Amy B. Bishell, William J. Hickey

Year:

2017

Type:

Paper

Station:

Forest Products Laboratory

Source:

In: McCowan, C.; Gothard, T.; Staula, B., eds. Proceedings, One hundred thirteenth annual meeting of the American wood protection association. Birmingham, AL: American Wood Protection Association: 90-99.

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Abstract

The fungal decay hazard map used by the American Wood Protection Association (AWPA) currently describes regional decay hazards in ground contact for North America and is based on condition assessments of utility poles from the 1970’s. Current work at the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory is underway to analyze soil and wood samples from several National Forests in the different AWPA hazard zones and evaluate fungal biodiversity using next-generation sequencing (NGS) of fungal DNA. The results of these analyses will provide fungal biodiversity data to contribute to the existing map and improve our understanding of how fungal biodiversity relates to regional biodeterioration rates. This paper is intended to provide a history of the AWPA decay hazard map, an overview of the current FPL project, and discuss some preliminary biodiversity study results.

Keywords

Wood decay fungi, hazard map, next-generation sequencing, AWPA

Citation

Kirker, Grant T.; Bishell, Amy B.; Hickey, William J. 2017. AWPA biodeterioration hazard map revisited. In: McCowan, C.; Gothard, T.; Staula, B., eds. Proceedings, One hundred thirteenth annual meeting of the American wood protection association. Birmingham, AL: American Wood Protection Association: 90-99.