A culture based diversity of saprobic fungi associated with leaf litter of Hevea brasiliensis along a chronosequence of
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Tropical Ecology https://doi.org/10.1007/s42965-020-00104-7
RESEARCH ARTICLE
A culture based diversity of saprobic fungi associated with leaf litter of Hevea brasiliensis along a chronosequence of plantations in Tripura, Northeast India Kripamoy Chakraborty1 · Aparajita Roy Das2 · Ajay Krishna Saha2 · Panna Das1 Received: 29 July 2019 / Revised: 26 August 2020 / Accepted: 28 August 2020 © International Society for Tropical Ecology 2020
Abstract The present study aimed to assess the diversity of saprobic fungi associated with three decompositional stages of Hevea brasiliensis (Wild. ex Juss.) Mull. Arg. leaves along a chronosequence of plantations. The modified surface disinfection culture method was followed for isolation of saprobic fungi from three different phases (G1, G2 and G3) of decomposing leaves. The result revealed 51 species of fungi isolated from three plantations. There was an increasing trend of number of species along a chronosequence of plantations. Cladosporium sp. was isolated from all the phases of decomposition from all the three plantations. There is an increasing trend in diversity and a decreasing trend in dominance of fungi along a chronosequence of plantations. Overall, higher number of species and maximum diversity was recorded in G2 (Hʹ = 3.61) among the decompositional phases. The study suggests increase in diversity along a chronosequence of plantations and the similarity index suggests distinct fungal occurrence pattern in the leaf litter along a chronosequence of plantations. Keywords Age · Cladosporium · Decompositional stages · Fungal composition · Rubber plantation · Saprophytic fungi
Introduction Tripura is the second largest rubber (Hevea brasiliensis (Wild. ex Juss.) Mull. Arg.) producer in India. The plantations were introduced in 1963 to check soil deterioration due to slash and burn agriculture practiced by the local people occupying more than 40,000 ha area in the state (Chaudhuri et al. 2013). The current position of natural rubber in the state is essentially an outcome of the institutional interventions conceived and implemented by the Rubber Board and the State Government of Tripura during the past five decades (Sharma et al. 2014). The litter decomposition is a vital process of nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems (Charley and Richards 1983). Physical and biological processes are involved in releasing * Panna Das [email protected] 1
Microbiology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar, Tripura 799 022, India
Mycology and Plant Pathology Laboratory, Department of Botany, Tripura University, Suryamaninagar, Tripura 799 022, India
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nutrient from decaying organic matter (Bake and Attiwill 1985). Among the biological processes, microbes particularly fungi were regarded as efficient decomposers of organic matter, especially plant litter (Dickinson and Pugh 1974). Fungi contributed substantially to such complex phenomenon of nutrient recycling in forest ecosystems as they produce various extracellular enzymes that breakdown the
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