Diversity of Microfungi in Soil Polluted by Cement Factory

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the microfungi flora of polluted soils of a cement factory in Edremit, southwest of Van, Turkey. Soil samples were collected from 10 different locations, from 100 meter to 5 km from the factory. The fungi were isolated on rose-bengal-streptomycin agar plates using dilution-plate technique. The number of microfungi ranged from 1 x 10(5) to 5.35 x 10(5) cfu. Isolated genera and species were Penicillium (P. decumbens, P. funiculosum, P. glabrum P. gladioli, P. soppii, P. thomii, P. turbatum), Aspergillus (A. alliaceus, A. candidus, A. flavus, A. niger, A. ochraceus), Mycelia sterilia (3 different types), Fusarium (F. oxysporum), Cladosporium (C tenuissimum), Nannizzia (N. grubyia), Doratomyces (D. microsporus), Paecilomyces (P. byssochlamydoides), Cylindrocarpon (C candidum), Beauveria (B. bassiana), Rhizopus (R. stolonifer) and Minimedusa (M. polyspora). Species composition varied in different soil samples. Total microfungi number and frequency of some microfungi species may be affected by pollution. It seems that there is a slight correlation between the microfungi number and some heavy metal concentration such as iron. Also, a slight relation between organic matter (r = 0.544), CaCO3 (r = 0.463), nickel (Ni2+) (r = 0.617) and microfungi count was found, but an adverse relation to available phosphorus (r = -0.486), exchangeable potassium content (r = -0.468) and moisture content (r = -0.401). Moreover, there are very significant correlations between the following characters: Organic matter-pH, Mn-pH, Pb-salty, Fe-organic matter, and lower significant correlations following these: Mn-salty, P-Cr, Na-organic matter, Pb-Na, Cd-moisture, K-Cr, P-Ni, Pb-Cu and Mn-P.