Diversity of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Shola Forests of Kodaikanal, Southern India

Life Sciences-Botany for Medicinal science

Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi establish symbiotic association with more than 80% of land plants and influence plant community composition and distribution. The mycorrhizal status of plant species in various ecosystems have been reported but failed to assess community composition of AM fungi in shola forests, therefore present study carried out to fulfill this research gap.  A  total  of  Seven  AM  fungal  species  could  be  isolated  from  Tiger  and  Kookal  shoal  and  identified  based  on  spore morphology. There is no significant difference among distribution of AM fungal spores in various seasons among sites. In both the sholas AM fungal spore numbers were high during the wet (September) season and the variation among spore numbers in different seasons among sites were insignificant. Arbuscular mycorrhizal spore of Funneliformis geosporum was the most frequent species and Funneliformis mosseae was the less frequent species. The frequency among various sites in both the Sholas was insignificant. The AM fungal species richness was high in Tiger Shola (six spores), whereas in Kookal Shola showed less species richness. The diversity indices like Shanon - Weaver index (H') and Simpson index (D) were calculated in all the sites and showed variation among shoals in four sites. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal community composition in this ecosystem have been elucidated to certain extent and used for conservation of shola species.