Most ecological studies of fungi associated with tropical plants have focused on the rhizosphere or phyllosphere of seedlings, saplings and adult trees (Augspurger 1983, 1984; Bell et al. 2006, Gilbert 2002, Gilbert et al. 2002, Husband et al. 2002, Kiers et al. 2000, Mangan et al. 2004). However, fungi also infect the seeds of tropical trees, reducing seed survival and potentially affecting ad...

The relative roles of ectomycorrhizal (ECM) and saprotrophic communities in controlling the decomposition of soil organic matter remain unclear. We tested the hypothesis that ECM community structure and activity influences the breakdown of nutrient-rich biopolymers in soils, while saprotrophic communities primarily regulate the breakdown of carbon-rich biopolymers. To test this hypothesis, we u...

introduction: the fungi are found in the soil of all the world. the prevalence  in each area depends on environmental and nutritional conditions. considering the importance of soil in transmission of diseases, this study was conducted to determine the prevalence of fungi and actinomycetes in the soil of different regions of sari and its suburbs in 2002. materials and methods: in a descriptive s...

Efforts to maintain and restore whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis) forests in western North America have increased dramatically over the last two decades and now include the planting of nursery-grown rust resistant seedlings in openings and burned areas. Over 200,000 nursery seedlings have been planted in the western U.S. but survival rates are low and in many areas approach zero. One possibilit...

Cryptic belowground organisms are difficult to observe and their responses to global changes are not well understood. Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that interactions among aboveand belowground communities may mediate ecosystem responses to global change. We used grassland mesocosms to manipulate the abundance of one important group of soil organisms, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi...

Background and Purpose Keratinophilic fungi are among the important groups of fungi living in the soil. This study aimed to isolate and identify keratinophilic fungi from the soil of three Iranian islands, namely Greater Tunb, Abu Musa, and Sirri, located in the Persian Gulf using morphological and molecular (polymerase chain reaction) methods. Materials and Methods In this study, a total of ...

Background and Purpose: Keratinophilic fungi are among the important groups of fungi living in the soil. This study aimed to isolate and identify keratinophilic fungi from the soil of three Iranian islands, namely Greater Tunb, Abu Musa, and Sirri, located in the Persian Gulf using morphological and molecular (polymerase chain reaction) methods. Materials and Methods: In this study, a total ...

We grew leek (Allium porrum) in soils of two shooting ranges heavily contaminated with heavy metals in the towns of Zuchwil and Oberuzwil in Switzerland as a bioassay to test the activity of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi in these soils. Soil samples were taken from (1) front of the shooting house (HOUSE), (2) the area between house and target (FIELD) and (3) the berm (BACKSTOP). Samples of ...

Forest management activities, such as tree thinning, alter forest ecology, including key components of forest ecosystems, including fungal communities. In the present study, we investigate the effects of forest thinning intensity on the populations and structures of fungal soil communities in the Cryptomeria japonica forests of central Taiwan as well as the dynamics of soil fungi communities in...

One DDT-contaminated soil and two uncontaminated soils were used to enumerate DDT-resistant microbes (bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi) by using soil dilution agar plates in media either with 150 mg DDT ml−1 or without DDT at different temperatures (25, 37 and 55◦C). Microbial populations in this study were significantly (p<0.001) affected by DDT in the growth medium. However, the numbers of m...