Taxonomic Documentation and Statistical Analysis of Soil Mycoflora of Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Maharashtra, India

Aims: The present paper deals with documentation of diversity and analysis of ecological aspects of soil microfungal flora of Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP).

Study Design: The study area was divided into five zones, defined over span of three ranges and 10% peripheral area.

Place and Duration of Study: SGNP, Maharashtra, India between September 2016 and September 2020.

Methodology: A total of 43 soil samples were collected from 5 zones. Microscopic and molecular methods were used for identification of species. We examine dissimilarity in species composition by pairwise Jaccard Dissimilarity Index. We examine diversity of microfungi using diversity indices of Gini-Simpson’s and Shannon’s, true diversity (Shannon’s effective number of species) and equitability of species with Pielou’s evenness index.

Results: The study resulted in a total of 77 isolates of 77 soil fungi obtained from 43 soil samples. A total of 36 species were documented under 15 genera. Aspergillus was dominant genus with 16 species, whereas Aspergillus niger was dominant species representing maximum 12 isolates. Pairwise Jaccard Dissimilarity Index was found to be above 66% in all cases, with only one species common in all the zones. In diversity indices, Gini-Simpson’s was 0.9347, and Shannon’s, was 3.1450. Pielou’s evenness index was 0.8776, causing true diversity, calculated as effective number of species (23), to be less than observed species richness (36).

Conclusion: Thus, based on systematics and statistical analysis, it can be concluded that SGNP exhibits rich diversity of soil microfungi.