Commercial timbers from Turkey used in coastal construction and boat building were tested for their resistance to marine wood-boring invertebrates in a marine trial and in a laboratory screening test. The timbers tested were beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky), oak (Quercus petraea (Mattuschka) Liebl.), chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.), and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). | Research Article Turk J Agric For 33 (2009) 569-576 © TÜBİTAK doi: Variation in resistance to marine borers in commercial timbers from Turkey, as assessed by marine trial and laboratory screening Hüseyin SİVRİKAYA1,*, Simon M. CRAGG2, Luisa M. S. BORGES2 1Department of Industrial Forest Engineering, Faculty of Forestry, Bartın University, 74100 Bartın - TURKEY 2University of Portsmouth, School of Biological Sciences, Institute of Marine Sciences, Ferry Road, Portsmouth PO4 9LY - UK Received: Abstract: Commercial timbers from Turkey used in coastal construction and boat building were tested for their resistance to marine wood-boring invertebrates in a marine trial and in a laboratory screening test. The timbers tested were beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky), oak (Quercus petraea (Mattuschka) Liebl.), chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.), and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). The marine trial was conducted over a period of 5 months at Mersin on the southern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Activity by teredinid (Mollusca, Bivalvia) borers during this period was very high, resulting in the maximum rating of 4 on the EN 275 scale for P. sylvestris sapwood and heartwood panels. Q. petraea panels averaged and C. sativa panels were attacked the least with a mean rating of . There was little variation between the timbers tested in the size of the shells of the teredinids found, and so variation in the level of attack can be ascribed to fewer animals colonising C. sativa and Q. petraea than P. sylvestris. About one half of the teredinids identified were Teredo navalis (Linnaeus 1758), one quarter Bankia carinata (JE Gray 1827), and one quarter Nototeredo norvagica (Spengler 1792). No evidence of preference for a particular timber by any of these species was observed. Teeth on the ridges of the shells of teredinids from C. sativa were partially or wholly immersed in a dark brown substance that might reduce the boring efficiency of the shell.
