Kovalenko models the interactions between lignin and hemicellulose in wood cell walls and finds that structural integrity is held together not by bonds but by water being pushed out.
The interactions are predominantly hydrophobic and entropy-driven. Water exclusion — the expulsion of structured water molecules from between lignin surfaces — releases entropy and stabilizes the association. The tree doesn't build its skeleton from strong connections. It builds it from the absence of solvent.
This means wood is shaped by what is absent rather than what is present. The dense rings of a slow-growth year, the light rings of a fast-growth year — the history written into growth rings is ultimately stabilized by a thermodynamic preference for dry interfaces. The structural record is held in place by entropy.
This has practical consequences. The same hydrophobic, entropy-driven interactions that make wood rigid are what make cellulose extraction difficult. The tree's method of encoding history in ring structure is simultaneously its method of resisting decomposition. The archive and the armor are the same mechanism.
For forestry and biomass processing, this reframes the problem. Breaking down lignocellulose isn't a matter of breaking bonds — it's a matter of overcoming the entropic preference for water exclusion. You're not cutting chains; you're forcing water back into spaces where thermodynamics pushed it out.
The skeleton stands because the water left.