Hello Ethel Rose,

Look for Brearley, 2003, a paper about mangroves habitat partitioning; ,showing mangrove species preferences. There are a few more references in the citations that might apply. Teredos don't seem to read our journals as they are always doing something different than expected;  looking for preferences at your location would be useful.  How many species of mangroves are in your groves?

Nancy

Hi Ma'am Nancy,

Thank you again for this information. Theres alot of species of mangroves present in our area. The most common species belongs to Rhizophoraceae and Avicenniaceae. I got in trouble on how to identify this type of species based on driftwood mangroves. One of the method that i suppose to use is by hunting of driftwood mangroves within the area. Is there any method on how to identify driftwood of mangroves?

Ethel Rose

Hello Ethel Rose:

I work with driftwood also, although not mangroves! (since I live in Oregon, USA). There is a wood lab here at Oregon State University that will identify wood using cellular characteristics, using thin sections and microscopy. There are keys written to identify wood using cellular characteristics, although not for all trees and not all geographic areas. Hardwoods have more work done on them. 

Here is a link to a wood key for European hardwoods: www.woodanatomy.ch to give you an idea of what is looked for.,and a paper looking at Mangrove wood with some anatomy in it.  Also attatched is the Breardley article. 

Nancy 

Hello Ethel Rose

Live mangrove trees resist borers, but all mangrove timbers can become infested once the wood falls to the forest floor in the lower intertidal. Salinity is a big decider of where the borers occur. You may also get small isopod crustaceans - Limnoria - in the fallen wood if the salinity is close to full strength seawater. There is some information about borers and mangroves in the attached chapter.

Best wishes

Simon