A demonstration of the effects of substrate screening on the colonisation and decay of cotton textiles in soil burial tests

Abstract

The screening of a test substrate is a technique which may be employed during soil burial testing of materials (Eggins &Lloyd, 1968). One suggested advantage of such a technique is that only active organisms colonise the material under test. This experiment shows the effects of screening textile samples in soil burial tests, compared with unscreened controls. Two groupes of cotton textile strips were buried in soil and incubated at 25° C. In one group the strips were in direct contact with the soil, in the other group they were screened from direct contact with the soil by a covering of finely woven glass-fibre tape. The strips were removed at intervals for plating-out on agar, and also for tensile testing. Lists of fungal species isolated from the strips were compiled, (Tables 1 and 2) and tensile testing results are shown on the graph. For the purpose of comparing fungal species isolated by this method with those isolated by a less selective technique, an investigation of the soil mycoflora was also made using Warcups' technique. (Table 6).