Fluctuating temperature and the longevity of conidia of Metarhizium flavoviride in storage

Conidia of Metarhizium flavoviride were hermetically stored at 13.7% moisture content with four constant (20, 30, 40 and 50°C) and six fluctuating temperature regimes (20:30, 20:40, 20:50, 30:40, 30:50 and 40°C:50°C, all 24 h:24 h) for up tO 119 days. Survival of condia stored at both constant and fluctuating temperatures conformed to cumulative negative normal distributions and all 10 survival curves could be constrained to a common origin. The effect of constant storage temperature on conidia longevity was quantified satisfactorily by a negative curvilinear semi-logarithmic relation developed previously, in which the estimates of the constants C(H) and C(Q) were 0.0176 (SE 0.0013) and 0.000703 (SE 0.000019), respectively. The fitted relation at constant temperatures showed that Q₁₀ for loss in conidia viability increased the warmer the temperature regime. The effect of the cooler temperature of each fluctuating temperature regime on conidia longevity was small, since the effective temperature of each regime for loss in conidia viability was always much warmer than the mean. Conidia were also stored in two further regimes: at 30°C for 21 or 35 days before transfer to 50°C. The standard deviations of the conidia survival curves at 50°C were unaffected by the duration of previous storage at 30°C. Thus change in temperature per se had no effect on conidia survival: conidia survival curve slopes were solely dependent upon the contemporary storage environment. Approaches are developed in order to predict loss of conidia viability in fluctuating temperature storage environments, and the predictions compared against independent observations.