Diversity of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal fungi in relation to soil properties and disturbance

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi play an important role in terrestrial symbiosis, but little is known about how soil AM fungal community composition varies in relation to soil properties and disturbance. Diversity of AM fungi was investigated in soil under trees in disturbed rainforest of Jeli District, Kelantan, Malaysia. Sixty rhizosphere soil samples were collected from this rainforest and 234 AM fungal spores (or sporocarp) samples were obtained using the wet-sieve method. Twenty-six species of AM fungi were identified from the collections. The species of AM fungi were of the genera Acaulospora (6 species), Gigaspora (1 species), Glomus (14 species), Sclerocystis (1 species) and Scutellospora (4 species). Glomus was dominant at the study site. The AM fungal spore density ranged from 65 to 1582 per 100 g dry soil (average 839), and the species richness of AM fungi ranged from 1-7 (average = 3.93). The diversity indexes in this study showed that low AM fungi diversity was found in the study site and its tend to be relatively influenced by soil properties and disturbance.