Streamlining automation in a rapid wood durability test against the marine wood boring crustacean, Limnoria quadripunctata.

Abstract

Gribble significantly impact the biodegradation of wood in marine environments, causing costly damages, but can be used to easily assess wood consumption rates. Faecal pellet production indicates feeding rate and is a good proxy for degradation. However, counting large numbers of pellets by eye may be impractical with multiple replicates. Optimising a rapid, cost-effective, and user-friendly protocol to evaluate wood durability against gribble can be used in development of sustainable wood protection methods. Automated counting methods ImageJ and FlowCAM, were evaluated against manual counts for efficiency and accuracy. ImageJ was more suitable for large sample volumes, offering a balance of cost, time, and accuracy. Both methods showed greater degrees of error as faecal pellet counts increased. ImageJ tended to undercount, whereas FlowCAM often overcounted significantly. The FlowCAM rapidly processed individual samples, however loading/unloading samples increased time-consumption as replicates increased. ImageJ was able to process multiple samples at once so total time was not influenced by sample size. This research underlines the importance of optimising counting methods to accurately assess the impact of gribble on wood degradation, offering a streamlined approach for both specialist and non-specialist laboratories to evaluate wood durability and enhance the development of non-toxic, sustainable wood protection solutions.