Application of Information Theory to Study Wood Photodegradation

Wood is a structured biomaterial able to interact with its environment. An information theoretic framework has been used to model the processing of the environmental inputs to produce output (discoloration) in a photodegradation process. The task of the wood is to receive signals from source with its molecular structure, lignin, acting as the sensor, process them to produce output, blocking “irrelevant” information, coordinating the activities of the internal processing. Maximum temperature (heat) was found to be the most informationally rich environmental input affecting discoloration whereas the wood dedicated a large amount of information to the activities of total rainfall (moisture). The wood blocked greatest amount of information of the sent information by maximum temperature. If the intensity of photodegradation is to be reduced, the wood must be protected from maximum temperature (heat) and moisture. When viewed from this perspective, the active and intelligence nature of wood is reinforced.