Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

FUNGAL DIVERSITY OF FRESHWATER WETLANDS OF GOA, INDIA

Sima V. Kamat

Abstract

Fungi are ubiquitous organisms. They exist in diverse forms in a range of habitats, arboreal, freshwater, marine, subterranean and terrestrial. Further, continuous variations in the prevailing climatic condition affect the fungi everywhere and this is reflected with recognizable changes in the diversity of fungus flora, from place to place. Continued survey and study by dedicated mycologists have resulted in the documentation of a sizable floristic data on fungi of India ( Bhat, 2007). A mixture of very diverse fungi and their spores are found in water courses. The chief fungi of freshwaters are Chydrodiomycetes and Oomycetes. A number of them are parasites on freshwater planktons. The investigation of the taxonomy and diversity of the fungi (Hypomycetes) occurring in the fresh water wetlands of the eleven tehsils of Goa was carried out for a period of two years during different seasons viz Monsoon, Post Monsoon and Pre Monsoon. In all 19 genera of aquatic Hypomycetes namely Achyla sps, Allatospora sps, Dendraspora Sps, Gonopodya sps. Trichadrum sps, Allomyces Sps., Aphanomyces sps., Articulospora sps, Tetrachaetium sps, Varicosporium sps, Chaetospori sps, Dictyuchus sps, Anguilospora sps, Cylindrocarpon sps, Actinospora sps, Campylospora sps. were recorded from eleven freshwater wetlands of south Goa and North Goa during the study period.