Contribution of hardness to the natural resistance of a range of wood species to attack by the marine borer Limnoria
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Simon M. Cragg
Abstract
This study set out to determine whether wood surface hardness plays a role in determining the resistance to Limnoria attack. The feeding rates of the wood-boring crustacean Limnoria quadripunctata on matchstick-sized samples of a range of timbers were assessed by measuring the production of faecal pellets under forced feeding conditions. Pellet production rates varied significantly between wood species, with production on Lophira alata (ekki) 25-fold lower than that on non-durable Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) sapwood. The surface hardness of the timbers was measured for air-dry and seawater-soaked samples using a microindentation technique. The force required for a universal testing machine to drive a 150-μm-diameter pin 1.2 mm into the samples was measured. For all wood species, the hardness of seawater-soaked wood was lower than that of air-dry wood. Hardness was found to correlate positively with density. Pellet production rates showed a significant negative correlation with hardness across the range of species used, but if the denser species alone were considered, wood species significantly affected the rate, but hardness did not. In view of these observations, tests on resistance to attack by Limnoria should include a denser, non-durable wood species for comparison, as its hardness would likely be more similar to that of the durable species.
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©2007 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
Articles in the same Issue
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Articles in the same Issue
- Characterization of thin water layers in pulp by tritium exchange. Part 1: Methods development
- Characterization of thin water layers in pulp by tritium exchange. Part 2: Effect of refining on water absorption
- Characterizing wood fiber and particle length with a mixture distribution and a segmented distribution
- Effect of photolysis on 17th/18th century paper
- Changes in the cell wall volume of a number of wood species due to reaction with acetic anhydride
- A novel simple route to wood acetylation by transesterification with vinyl acetate
- Formation and properties of nanocomposites made up from solid aspen wood, melamine-urea-formaldehyde, and clay
- Ellagitannins from Portuguese oak wood (Quercus pyrenaica Willd.) used in cooperage: influence of geographical origin, coarseness of the grain and toasting level
- Epimeric phenylpropanoid glycosides from inner bark of Paulownia coreana Uyeki
- Lipid and lignin composition of woods from different eucalypt species
- A hysteresis model suitable for numerical simulation of moisture content in wood
- Simple estimation of critical stress intensity factors of wood by tests with double cantilever beam and three-point end-notched flexure
- Screening fungi tolerant to Western red cedar (Thuja plicata Donn) extractives. Part 1. Mild extraction by ultrasonication and quantification of extractives by reverse-phase HPLC
- Screening fungi tolerant to Western red cedar (Thuja plicata Donn) extractives. Part 2. Development of a feeder strip assay
- Contribution of hardness to the natural resistance of a range of wood species to attack by the marine borer Limnoria
- Biodeterioration of treated Pinus radiata timber by Australian decay fungi and the termite Coptotermes acinaciformis in laboratory bioassays and field conditions
- Development of an accelerated soil-contact decay test
- Obituary Dr. Bo Hortling (1942–2006)
