Soil and Root Fungi in Sakacrat Dry Evergreen Forest

Abstract

Studies were made on soil and root fungi of the two different communities, open and dense, of dry evergreen forest at the Applied Scientific Research Corportion of Thailand’s Sakaerat Experiment Station in Northeastern Thailand. Fungal population of the root system, the rhizophere and non-rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere soil were determined. Isolation and identification of the fungi were made. Soil were also analysed for their physical and chemical characteristics. Attempts were also made to study the relationship between the fungal characteristic and the two type of the forest communities. It was found that the two communities of the forest differed in fungal density as well as in fungal composition. The fungal numbers were higher in the dense community where the soil were richer in nutrients. Most of the fungi were found were to be common to both types of forests.They are Penicillium, Aspergillus, Trichodema, gliocladium, Gongronella ad Scopulariopsis. Certain other fungi, such as Absidia and members of Mycelia sterilia, were found to confine in the dense forest soil while Cylindrocladium were confined in the open forest soil.