Physicochemical analyses and mycoflora of desert soils in Upper Egypt

Abstract

Most of the desert lands contain sandy soils, which include large areas in the world. The sandy or loam soils in Upper Egypt were placed under investigate of soil texture, and moisture content –in addition some chemical analyses. Where, had very low organic matter (mean= 0.28) with available total dissolved salts (mean= 0.53) and alkaline pH-value (mean= 9.00). The moisture content of samples was very low (mean= 2.59). All of desert soil samples (100% of the samples) proved to be contaminated by filamentous fungi. A total of 121 fungal species + 7 varieties of 32 genera were isolated and identified on the isolation medium (1% glucose Czapek’s agar) at 28°C, based on dilution plate method. The gross fungal count was 94.36 colonies/mg dry soil. Aspergillus (36 sp. + 4 var.) was the most dominant genus based on frequency (95% of the samples) and count (55.34% of total fungal counts). Penicillium (28 sp. + 1 var.) had the second place (70% of the sample and 26.83% of grass count). Ulocladium occupied the third place (22.5% and 3.18%). Acremonium was one of the dominant genera (4th place). It occurred in 20% of the samples examined and 1.61% of gross fungal counts. The dematiaceous hyphomycetes, in addition ascospore-forming fungi were dominant in rare frequency. Whereas, sterile mycelia were high in frequency (52.5% of the samples) and low count (1.99% of gross fungal count).