Diversity of Fungal Populations in Soils Cultivated With Cassava Cultivar TMS 98/0505

The physical and chemical characteristics of soils cultivated with cassava cultivar TMS 98/0505 were assessed. The range of the parameters were 5.01 – 6.58 for pH; 0.16 – 9.86% for soil moisture; 0.23 – 0.34 g/ml for water holding capacity and 0.14 – 11.6% for organic matter. The fungal populations in the rhizosphere and rhizoplane ranged from 5.0 x 102 to 4.5 x 104 cfu/g and 2.0 x 102 to 2.0 x 104 cfu/g respectively. Similarly, the degree of stimulation of fungi in the rhizosphere and rhizoplane ranged from 0.19 – 16.07 and 0.15 – 22.00 respectively. A total of 28 different fungal species were isolated from the rhizosphere and rhizoplane of the plant belonging to 23 genera which were Aspergillus, Acremonium, Brettanomyces, Botrytis, Byssochamys, Cladosporium, Curvularia, Doratomyces, Eremascus, Geotrichum, Humicola, Moniliella, Mucor, Neurospora, Oidiodendron, Penicillium, Papulospora, Rhodotorula, Rhizopus, Saccharomyces, Stachybotrys, Scopulariopsis, and Ulocladium. The most prevalent fungi in the rhizosphere and rhizoplane were Saccharomyces cerevisiae (20.0%) and Brettanomyces bruxellensis (18.7%) respectively. It can be concluded from this research that there were diverse groups of mycoflora in the root region which had contributed to the healthy growth of the plant. Also, the soil physical conditions such as water holding capacity has improved considerably due to cultivation.