© by PSP Volume 18 – No 1. 2009 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin 82 BIODIVERSITY AND FLORA OF MICROFUNGI FROM SULTANA-TYPE VINEYARD SOILS IN TURKEY Rengin Eltem 1 , Evrim Taşkin 2* and Selda Pazarbaşi 3 1 Bioengineering Department, Engineering Faculty, Ege University, Bornova, İzmir 35100, Turkey 2 Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Celal Bayar University, Muradiye-Manisa 45140, Turkey 3 Biotechnology Division Institute of Applied Sciences, Ege University, Bornova, İzmir 35100, Turkey ABSTRACT In this study, the culturable microfungi flora of vine- yard soils belonging to Manisa and Izmir provinces (Tur- key) were investigated quantitatively and qualitatively (spe- cies composition, diversity characteristics, such as species richness, evenness). Soil samples of 62 sultana-type vine- yards from five locations (Alaşehir, Manisa I, Manisa II, Manisa III and Izmir) were collected using the Brown’s technique. The soil dilution technique was used for micro- fungi isolation. The mean microfungi number of 1 g fresh soil was counted to be 71 000 colony forming units (CFUs). A total of 66 species and 3 varieties belonging to 16 gen- era were encountered including Aspergillus, Penicillium, Cladosporium, Alternaria, Rhizopus, Trichoderma, Chae- tomium, Chrysosporium, Dreschlera, Glomerularia, Glio- cladium, Fusarium, Fusidium, Nectria, Spicaria, and Rhi- zomucor. Members of “Aspergillus section Nigri”, gener- ally known as black Aspergilli, dominated all locations and their incidence among all isolated fungi was 80.4 %. As- pergillus aculeatus was the most encountered species with 100 % ratio. It was followed by A. foetidus var. pallidus with 93.3 %, and A. awamori with 73.3 %. The highest microfungal diversity was found in location Manisa II (station Saruhanlı) with indexes for biodiversity as Shan- non (H) 3.28, Simpson’s (D) 0.93 and Evenness (J) 0.96. This is the first extensive study carried out on biodiversity and microfungi flora of vineyard soils in Turkey. KEYWORDS: Biodiversity, soil dilution, vineyard, microfungi. INTRODUCTION In Turkey, preliminary studies on soil-borne micro- fungal flora were started by Oner [1]. Since then, numer- ous studies were performed by a number of researchers in Turkey on species composition of fungi from different types of soils, for example, fruit and vegetable gardens, forests, agricultural areas, irrigated and arid areas, wasted and pol- luted fields [2-4]. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) [5], Turkey takes place at the 4 th rank with respect to total vineyard area, and is the second rai- sin exporter in the world. The Aegean Region holds 33% of total vineyard area and 43% of the grape production in Turkey. It is mainly produced in Manisa and Izmir prov- inces. The two grape cultivars, one of which is compro- mised 90 % of total cultivated varieties, are Sultana and Round Seedless, unique to the region. General features of vineyard soils from the Manisa till 30 cm of depth were reported for total organic content as 0.90 %, total nitrogen as 0.045 %, CaCO 3 as 9.75 %, and composition of soil as sandy-loamy with alkaline pH (8.07) [6]. In this study, microfungi flora of vineyards soils from Manisa and Izmir provinces, located in the western part of Turkey, were investigated with regard to species composi- tion, biodiversity characteristics, but also distribution and number of soil microfungi. MATERIALS AND METHODS Collection of soil samples 62 sultana-type vineyard soil samples were obtained by Brown’s technique [7] from 11 stations belonging to 5 loca- tions (named Alaşehir, Manisa I, Manisa II, Manisa III and Izmir) located in the western part of Turkey (Fig. 1), during 1999 and 2000 growing season. These soil samples representing the vineyards were taken from 10 cm depth by sterilized spoons and trans- ferred to sterile plastic bags. These samples were stored at 4 ° C until use. The soil samples were dried at 105 ° C over- night to obtain the amount of wet soil that gives 25 g of dry soil. Isolation and identification of microfungi Microfungi were isolated by the soil dilution method [8, 9]. The soil samples (equal to 25 g of dried soil) were diluted with sterile distilled water in ratio 1:10 (w:v) ratio,