Abstract

Soil microbial diversity and fungi involved in litter decomposition was studied for a period of two years in the shola forests of Munnar and Wayanad. The sholas selected were Mannavan shola, Pambadam Shola and Manthan shola in Munnar Forest Division and Meppadi shola and Brahmagiri shola in Wayanad Forest Division. The density of fungal population varied between sholas. The population of fungi was highest in Pambadam shola and lowest in Manthan shola. Both in Pambadam and Manthan shola the bacterial population was higher at a soil depth of 0-10 cm. The actinomycete population was also high in Manthan shola at 0-10 cm and 10-20 cm depth. In Manthan shola, the fungal density of fully decomposed leaf was low. Aspergillus, Penicillium, Trichoderma, Verticillium and Pestalotiopsis were the common dominant genus identified from all sholas. Among the actinomycetes, the genus Streptomyces dominated in all sholas. Seventeen species of fungi are new records to Kerala.