Abstract
In the present study, species composition, diversity characteristics (species richness, heterogeneity, evenness), and dominant species of soil microfungal communities in Nahal Meitsar, southeastern Golan Heights, Israel, were examined. Seventy species belonging to Zygomycota (3), teleomorphic Ascomycota (6), and anamorphic Ascomycota (61) were isolated. Mesophilic Penicillium species dominated the microfungal communities in all localities studied: P. lanosum in shade under trees and in open sunlight on the “European” north-facing slope (NFS) and P. aurantiogriseum in sunlight on the “African” south-facing slope (SFS). The SFS, in contrast to such slopes in “Evolution Canyons” I and II (Nahal Oren, Mount Carmel, and Nahal Keziv, Upper Galilee, Israel), had poor species composition and lower biodiversity characteristics than the NFS. Such simplification of the SFS soil microfungal community may have been the result of pasturage on this slope, followed by soil degradation and development, of monotonous weed vegetation.
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