Megha Singh, Ayush Tomar, Lalit Kumar, Abha Verma, Shalu Choudhary, Nisha Dhillon, Sonam Arya and Taniya

Diversity in soil microflora directly affects plant growth and development by providing it with sufficient mineral nutrients. In the present study for comparative examination of plant performance in different ecosystems, soil samples were collected from four different locations within Meerut and labelled according to the site of collections as CAEHS (urban area), Sakoti (industrial area), Garh road (polluted area), and Samaypur (rural area). The total bacterial and fungal counts of the soil samples were estimated using standard spread plate technique. A pH strips was used to monitor soil pH while isolates were identified by their cultural, morphological and biochemical characteristics using established procedures. Bacterial counts were in the order of 10ᵌ-10⁷ cfu/gm of soil, while fungal counts were in the order of 10ᵌ-10⁷ cfu/gm of soil. The highest bacterial count was observed in Sakoti (industrial area), while the lowest value was seen in CAEHS (urban area). Similar bacterial and fungal species were encountered in the different sampling location in course of this study, but their occurrences and level of predominance were different. Spore forming bacilli species dominated the bacterial isolates while Aspergillus spp was the most dominate fungus across the different sampling locations. A near neutral pH was observed across the sampling sites. Bacterial and fungal abundance were typical of an environment with high species richness and functional diversity.

Pages: 17-20  |  485 Views  226 Downloads