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Biodeterioration

2022

The biodeterioration of organic and inorganic materials, as well as polymers, is a complex of alteration processes induced by the growing and metabolic activity of organisms. It can be recognized on monuments, wall paintings, stone, wood, paper, vegetal/animal fibers, and parchment artworks. As defined by Hueck, 1968, biodeterioration is “any undesirable change in the properties of a material caused by the vital activities of organisms”; this definition is accepted as the meaning of the phenomenon. Both macroorganisms (such as animals, plants, and mosses) and microorganisms (such as autotrophic or heterotrophic bacteria, microfungi, cyanobacteria, algae, and lichens) represent the triggers …