Preliminary study on climate seasonal and spatial variations on the abundance and diversity of fungi species in natural plantation ecosystems of Ile-Ife, South West, Nigeria

Abstract

The biodiversity assessment of fungi and the knowledge of the forces that controls the distribution of fungi and their community are becoming more important in the light of climate change and variability. Fungi provide the global foundation for plant as mutualists, decomposers and pathogens. This study deals with the primary screening, characterization and seasonal variations of mycoflora, isolated from medicinal, oil palm and plantain plantations of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, from February to June. Fungi colonies and different fungal species were screened and identified across different months and weather variability. Data on the weather variations were collected. Soil samples (0 to 30 cm depth) were collected at different locations within the rhizosphere in each plantation, and the physico-chemical properties and fungi microbial load were determined using standard techniques. The result of soil physico-chemical properties showed that the soil type was humus and acidic in nature. A total of 8 fungi genera and 33 species were recorded in the studied plantations. Temperature of the studied areas ranged between 22.5 to 31.06°C, while the relative humidity of the studied sites ranged from 54.6 to 100%. The rainfall data obtained in this study ranged between 0.381 to 0.584 m. The highest microbial load was (8 × 105 CFU/g) and was observed under medicinal plantation in the month of June. The results obtained showed that weather variability’s have direct effect on different fungal species sporulation and CFU formation.

Key words: Climate, fungi, soil, microbial load, natural plantation.