Abstract

The microbial invasion of unpeeled birch pulpwood during outside storage was studied. It was shown that the wood was invaded by a number of different micro-organisms -especially by fungi. Fungi with a minor wood-destroying capacity were found early in the wood, but later disappeared, being unable to compete with more pronounced wood-destroyers. When various decay fungi were cultured together, most frequently the mycelium of one of the two species finally suppressed or destroyed that of the other. Corticium laeve, for instance, which occurs in the wood at an early stage, was suppressed and its mycelium lysed by most of the other decay fungi tested. Temperature had a decisive effcct on the development of interaction phenomena between decay fungi. Coloured contact-zones between two different mycelia commonly occurred in culture. Interactions between bacteria isolated from birch and aspen pulpwood and decay fungi found in the same wood were studied. If the bacteria were transferred to the substrate before or at the same time as the decay fungi, the development of the latter was almost always reduced. If, on the contrary, the bacterial inoculation was performed after the fungal inoculation, the inhibiting effect often did not occur; a stimulation of the activity of the fungi even resulted. The bacteria produced diffusable substances, which could reduce or inhibit the growth of the decay fungi at considerable distance from the bacterial colony. The temperature had a substantial influence on the antagonistic activity of the bacteria on agar as well as in wood. Small amounts of culture filtrate from bacteria could completely replace thiamine in a nutrient solution for thiamine-heterotrophic decay fungi. One wood bacterium species greatly accelerated the decomposition caused by decay fungi on wood impregnated with o-aminophenol or sodium pentachlorophenate.

Keywords

microorganisms; birch; aspen; pulpwood; storage; fungi

Published in

Studia Forestalia Suecica
1967,
Publisher: Royal College of Forestry

Permanent link to this page (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/125226