NEWS & VIEWS > Workshop Review
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O. Chachula, "Review of COST Training School: Wood Science for Conservation of Cultural Heritage (WoodCultHer)", e-conservation magazine, No. 12 (2009) pp. 13-17, http://www.e-conservationline.com/content/view/848
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COST Training School: Wood Science for Conservation of Cultural Heritage (WoodCultHer)
Wood destroying insects, fungi and moulds decay on wooden cultural heritage objects and constructions
By Oana Chachula
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March 16-20, 2009, Hamburg (Germany)
Organisers: COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology)
http://www.cost.esf.org
During 16-20th March 2009 in Hamburg, Bergedorf (Germany) took place an intensive training workshop focused on the decay of wooden cultural heritage objects and constructions, as part of the COST Actions, program COST IE 0601. The participation was open to young or senior researchers, only upon invitation. The WoodCultHer action of COST project is aimed to enhance the interaction between wood scientists across Europe and to contribute this way towards the development of the study and conservation-restoration of wooden cultural heritage objects.
The workshop was organized by Dr. Uwe Noldt, from Wood Technology and Biology Institute, part of the Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute. The Institute’s research field comprises beside the usual issues regarding wood structure, its proprieties and qualities, studies about wooden buildings and their preservation as well as studies concerning the wood-environment correlation.
The course gathered together attendants and lecturers from all over Europe. Lectures were given by Dr. Uwe Noldt, Dr. Tobias Huckfeldt, Prof. Dr. Olaf Schmidt, Dr. Wolfram Scheiding (Germany), Dr. Ilze Irbe (Latvia), Prof. Dr. Mitko Karadelev (Macedonia), Dr. Manuel Cesareo Touza Vasquez (Spain), Dr. Lina Nunes (Portugal) and Dr. Livia Bucsa (Romania). The biological degradation of the wooden monuments and objects is both a serious and a sensitive arising issue, which sometimes can only be solved by interdisciplinary collaboration. Therefore the course intended, and succeeded to bring participants from different fields, such as conservator-restorers, scientists, biologists specialized in mycology or entomology, engineers and PhD students having as common interest the biology investigations, the main subject of this course.
Beside the theoretical concepts taught during the lectures, the program included laboratory workshops, visits at the institute’s laboratory, including the experimental ones, and at the Bergedorf farmhouse.
Image 1. The Institute of Wood Technology and Wood Biology of Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut.
Image 2. Identifying timber dry rot by microscopy methods during Training School (TS).
Image 3. Practical identification methods during training school in the laboratory of Institute of Wood Technology and Wood Biology.
The lectures were divided in two parts. The first part focused on the study and identification of wood destroying insects – (most of the lectures being given by Dr. Uwe Noldt) and in the second part the interest shifted to fungi and moulds analysis. An interesting aspect of the presentations, beside the scientific data, was that the teachers illustrated their papers with case studies regarding the biodegradation, investigation and preventive methods used in their own countries, this internationality bringing various and interesting information to the course.
An impressive database concerning the damage of wood-destroying insects characteristic to different timber species collected from all over the world was offered as study material for observations during the laboratory workshops. Moreover the Institute of Wood Technology and Wood Biology provided to each participant all the necessary equipment for the practical program.
Thus, we were able to microscopically identify the most common xylophagous insects from building area, such as House longhorn beetle (Hylotrupes bajulus (L.)), Longhorn beetles (Phymatodes/Callidium/Pyrrhydium sp.), Furniture beetle (Anobium punctatum – DeGerr), Death watch beetle (Xestobium rufovillosum – DeGerr), Dampwood borer (Hadrobregmus pertinax (L.)), Horntail wasps (Urocerus/Sirex sp.), Lyctid beetles (Lyctidae sp.) and wood ants (Lasius/Camponotus sp.). The integrated pest management, a very important issue beside the identification of the species, was also included in the discussions.
Furthermore, the course focused on brown-rot fungi identification and damages produced by Serpula lacrymans, which we were able to identify during the laboratory workshops. The lecture on brown dry rot problematic, given by Tobias Huckfeldt was one of the most efficient – as an investigation biologist without an experience in dry rot specie identification, I found his paper very resourceful. Besides useful information, the presentation made use of numerous descriptive images of the fruit-bodies, which may differ on a macroscopic level. Therefore, the accent was placed on the microscopic identification and on the micromorphology of species. Other identified dry rot species were Coniophora puteana, Antrodia vaillantii, Donkioporia expansa, Asterostroma cervicolor, Phellinus contiguus, Diplomitoporus lindbladii, Paxillus panuoides, Coprinus spp., Peziza repanda, Gloeophyllum abietinum.
Prof. dr. Olaf Schmidt presented general facts on wood-damaging fungi and bacteria, molecular methods for identification of wood-decay caused by fungi, and techniques, results and valuation.
Dr. Wolfram Scheiding discussed the problematic of the moulds attack in wooden churches and on other wooden art objects, such as organ pipes. He exposed methods of biologic and physic investigation of the moulds, with reference on air and laboratory tests, and on conservation-restoration safety measures. He emphasized the importance of long term microclimate control, the necessity of periodic airborne germ sampling and comparison between indoor and outdoor species and the assessment of health by medical experts. Health safety is an important aspect of our profession, as some mould species are dangerous for humans (among which Botrytis cinerea, Aspergillus fumigates). It was assessed however that if microbiologists respect the safety work procedures, the contamination risks are minimum. As a conclusion to this issue, it should be emphasized that the determination of genus or species might be significant in order to verify the hazardous species. Both in situ and laboratory investigation as well as measures deduction require experienced experts with knowledge and equipment.
From the Romanian side, Dr. Livia Bucsa presented an ample paper concerning the biodeterioration of the wall painting from the Romanian wooden churches. She described the fungal decay in over 300 wooden monuments, churches and buildings from open air museum.
On this same subject other interesting examples were given, like monuments from Latvia (Dr. Ilze Irbe), churches from Macedonia (Prof. Dr. Mitko Karadelev), wooden organ pipes from Germany (Wolfram Scheiding) as well as the relation between different cleaning methods and fungi formation risk due to airborne germs contamination.
From Portugal, Dr. Lina Nunes gave an interesting extensive lecture on problems with termites (Reticulitermes) in Portuguese wooden buildings, as well on facts regarding the biology, distribution, generic variation and non-traditional approaches to subterranean termites control in buildings.
Image 4. Larva of a wood destroying insect from pine, Ergates spiculatus (LeConte, USA, Oregon Pine), Collection of Institute of Wood Technology and Wood Biology.
Image 5. Different types of timber with exit holes of wood destroying insects, Collection of Institute of Wood Technology and Wood Biology.
Image 6. Work visit at the Bergedorf farmhouse.
Image 7. Participants of TS COST 0601 Hamburg 16-20 march 2009.
At the end of this course we were able to draw some important conclusions, such as the fact that brown dry rot (Serpula lacrymans) attack may be considered one of the most important dangers in Europe for wooden monuments or other objects that contain wood in their composition.
Among the reasons for the wood decay caused by fungi are poor maintenance, non-professional repairs or improper building construction. Examples were given for some decay typologies and their incidents in different countries. Brown -rot decay type predominated in the Latvian monumental buildings with 37% (Ilze Irbe and Ingeborga Andersone) and in Romanian historic monuments and open air museums where it has an occurrence of 38%.
The aim of this course was achieved; participants coming from different work fields but all involved in the research of wood’s biological decay gained knowledge regarding important aspects such as its occurrence and evolution, the existent species of biodeterioration agents on wooden constructions and monuments and which are the risks in different possible cases.
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About the author
Oana Chachula
Biologist
National Research Institute for Conservation and Restoration (INCCR),
Calea Victoriei, nr.12, S 3, 030026, Bucharest, Romania
Contact: oana_chachula@yahoo.com
Oana Chachula graduated from the Faculty of Biology Al. I. Cuza, in Iasi (Romania) in 2002.
She is currently pursuing her PhD in Animal Taxonomy field at Biology Faculty,University of Bucharest. She has been working at INCCR as a biologist for 3 years, her current work responsibilities including the biological investigation of movable objects and historical buildings.
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