Climate Change Impacts on Wetland Archaeology: Mapping Drought and Assessing Wood Deformation in Åmosen, Denmark

Here we quantify the tolerance of archaeological wood to drying by analyzing in situ deformation during a severe drought. Deformation began when matrix potential dropped below 0 kPa, with severe deformation below −50 kPa. At the study site, this corresponds to soil water contents (SWC) of less than 40% and 30%, respectively. Furthermore, we evaluate the feasibility of using either a high density of handheld surface SWC measurements or drone-based remote sensing to map SWC and wood deformation across a 0.2 × 0.2 km area. Interpolating SWC point data provided the most accurate results, while UAV-based TVDI accuracy declined under drier conditions.