Asian Journal of Microbiology, Biotechnology & Environmental Sciences Paper

SEASONAL CHANGES IN STRUCTURALLY DOMINANT BACTERIA OF CLAY MINING SITE AT KERALA CERAMICS LIMITED IN KERALA, INDIA

V. SALOM GNANA THANGA

Abstract

Clays, the active mineral portion of soils, are colloidal and most clay is crystalline. Clays have a net negative charge which will attract and hold positively charged ions (cations). The amounts of these positive cations held by clays vary with the kind of clay. This study pertains to the characteristics of soil in a clay mining site of Kerala Ceramics Limited (KCL) at Kundara, Kollam district Kerala. Kaolin or china clay is wide spread and Kaolinite is the dominant mineral fraction. It influences the microbial activity. The main objective of this work was to attain a knowledge of bacterial diversity in the clay mining site at KCL. A special emphasis placed on the bacteria because of their multiple roles in environmental microbiology. For the purpose of this work, samples were collected from three different sites during premonsoon season (April, 2009) and monsoon season (July, 2009).Various morphological and biochemical tests were carried out for the identification of structurally dominant bacteria and also various physico-chemical characters of soil was analyzed. Most of the structurally dominant bacteria identified from the clay soil were gram negative and are highly acidophilic in nature.