Diversity of culturable fungi species in a tropical lagoon

Abstract

Diversity of culturable fungi, isolated from surface water and sediments of Lagos Lagoon was studied. During the study, surface water and sediment temperature range was 26 ≥ 28 ^oC; the average value of the other physico-chemical parameters were salinity 3.19±1.98; dissolved oxygen 6.11±1.34 mg^-1; pH 7.71±0.06; sulphate120±49.8 mg^-1; phosphate 0.43±0.29 mg^-L and nitrite 7.65±4.93 mg^-P. The fungal population in surface water and sediment was between 3.10 x 10¹ ≥ 8. 40 x 10¹ cfu ml^-1 and 2.15 x 10¹ and 1.05 x 10² cfu g^-1 respectively. A total of 25 fungal species belonging to phyla Ascomycota (12), Zygomycota (6), Basidiomycota (1) and Fungi Imperfecti (6) were isolated and identified. Mucor species of the Zygomycota phylum, were the most frequent species encountered, being present in all the sampling stations. Nevertheless, the members of the Ascomycota occurred in many of the stations, but the isolation of fungi imperfecti species was not so frequent. The number of fungi species (45) isolated from surface water was higher than that from sediment (35). The diversity of culturable fungi in this aquatic ecosystem was impressive and offers strong implication for body of knowledge on aquatic fungi especially in Nigeria.

Keywords: Culturable, aquatic fungi, surface water, sediment, Lagos Lagoon