DIVERSIDADE DE FUNGOS DO SOLO DE UM FRAGMENTO DE MATA ATLÂNTICA NA PARAÍBA

Abstract

The Atlantic Forest is recognized for having one of the highest biodiversity among the world's tropical forest since it possesses a great quantity of species, many of which are endemic. Currently it has lost most of its natural ecosystems due to the anthropic activities, only 11% of the vegetation cover is present. Fungi are important components of forest ecosystems as they are responsible for the decomposition of organic matter, performing a cycling of nutrients, and making them available to plants. The present study had as objective to perform the isolation and characterization of soil fungi from an Atlantic Forest area, inserted in the Caatinga biome. The collection site is located at the Arboreto Jayme Coelho de Moraes, at the Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Areia, Paraíba. Two collections were carried out in 2018, in the months of February and April. In each collection, five different points were randomly sampled, which were then mixed, to form two mixed samples. The fungi were isolated by the serial dilution method, with aliquot of 0.1 mL of the soil suspension and transferred to potato dextrose agar (PDA). A total of 1,297 fungi distributed in 11 taxa were isolated, of which 522 were isolated in collection 1 and 775 in collection 2. The diversity index of Shannon indicated that the collection 2 presented greater diversity (H`= 0.659). The rarefaction curves did not present stability, although in the collection 1 the curve showed a greater slope. The genera obtained were: Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium, Paecilomyces and Rhizopus. A representative of sterile mycelium was also isolated in the present study. The most representative genera were Aspergillus and Penicillium. The results of this present study showed that the amount of fungi isolated from soils of the Atlantic Forest was considerable. Knowing the fungi that inhabit the soil is of extreme importance to understand its ecological role in this habitat that is so complex and fundamental for the maintenance of life.