Diversity of soil fungi in dry deciduous forest of Bhadra Wildlife sanctuary, western Ghats of southern India

Abstract

We assessed soil fungal diversity in the dry deciduous forest of a Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary of the Western Ghats (210.31 m a.s.l.; N 13°44′ and E75°37′). Soil samples were collected by random mixed sampling during winter (November, 2008), summer (March, 2009) and monsoon (August, 2009) seasons, and physico-chemical parameters were recorded. During winter, summer, and monsoon seasons, 49, 45 and 49 of fungal species belongs to 20, 18 and 19 of genera were isolated, respectively. Isolated soil fungi were mainly of the Mitosporic fungi, followed by Zygomycotina, Ascomycotina, Oomycotina and Coelomycetes. Indices of diversity, dominance and fisher alpha during winter, summer and monsoon seasons were 3.756, 3.638 and 3.738 (H′), 0.9737, 0.9694 and 0.9726 (1-D) and 18.84, 29.83 and 19.46 (α), respectively. Spearman’s (r) correlation coefficient of fungal population with physico-chemical parameters of soils showed significantly positive and negative correlations (p<0.01) during winter, summer and monsoon seasons. Physico-chemical soil parameters played an important role in the occurrence, diversity, distribution, and relative abundance of fungal species in the tropical dry deciduous forest soil.