Many wood species are degraded rapidly in soil by the fungal community. In order to preserve wood and structures in which it is used, chemical preservatives are used. Little is known about the interaction of treated wood and the surrounding soil fungal community. For this work, presented at IRG 41, wooden specimens (Pinus sylvestris sapwood, sizes 25 mm x 50 mm x 500 mm (longitudinal)) were treated with a formulation of chromium-copper-arsenic-(CCA) at two concentrations. Untreated wood of the same dimensions was used as controls. After drying and an appropriate fixation period, the specimens were buried in soi1 up to half of their length at the BAM test site in North East Germany. The interface of the wooden specimens and soil were sampled in spring, summer and autumn 2008 and the nucleic acids were extracted. The structure of fungal community was assessed by T-RFLP analyses (terminal-restriction fragment-length polymorphism) of the fungal ITS (internal transcribed spacer) region. In addition, samples were sequenced to identify fungal community members. Significant differences in the fungal community composition were detected in response to the presence (and concentration) of wood preservatives and to the season. The species identified were predominated by ascomycete fungi, and only at the actual interface of the non-preserved wood and the soil were basidiomyecte fungi detected. The interface to CCA preserved wood was composed of sequences affiliated to the genera Phoma, Peziza and Cladosporium. Patterns of the fungal communities were highly reproducible and the spatial sampling at the test site had only a minor effect on their composition.

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