Occurrence of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in tropical forest communities of india

Abstract

The paper deals with the quantitative and qualitative assessment of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) associated with the rhizosphere of dominant plants of three vegetation viz., Tropical Evergreen Forest, Gibbon Wild-life sanctuary, Jorhat, Assam, Tropical Moist Forest, Kanha National Park, Mandla, M.P., and Tropical Dry Deciduous Forest, Sagar, M.P. Root and rhizosphere soil samples, collected near different trees species were analyzed for root colonization, spore count, extramatrical hyphae, vesicles, Paris coil and intraradical spores. VAM spores were isolated by wet sieving and decanting method and estimation of spores was carried out. In evergreen forest vegetation (Site-I), maximum root colonization (33 ± 0.35%) was observed in Terminalia myrocarpa Henrck & Mull. and minimum in Walsura robusta Roxb. (19 ± 0.61%).VAM spore count per 25g of soil was also highest (133 ± 0.41) in Terminalia myrocarpa Henrck &Mull. while it was low in Mesua ferrea Linn. (48 ± 0.21). In tropical moist forest (Site-II), Bridelia retusa Spreng. was observed to support least root colonization (33 ± 0.4 per cent) and spore density (43 ± 0.25/25 g soil). Maximum root colonization (64 ± 0.49%) and spores density (167 ± 0.46) were found in Lagerastroemia parviflora Roxb. In tropical dry deciduous forest (Site-III), root colonization (62 ± 0.62%) and spores density (121 ± 0.31) were maximum in Albizzia lebbek Benth.-highest among all the three sites. Interestingly, these attributes were also lowest at this site in Wrightia tinctoria Linn. In all, 25 VAM species were identified from all the three forest sites. Out of these, 5 VAM species were common to three forest sites. More number of exclusive VAM species (6) were recorded at site-II. Glomus spp. was found as dominant VAM at all the three forest sites. Besides, the other morphological details of different VAM fungi, the results of present investigation envisage that diverse conditions of the habitat i.e. Tropical Moist Forest, support more VAM species not only in terms of numbers but also as the root association and potential propagules in the form of spores. © 2012, ALÖKI Kft.