ALOK ADHOLEYA, NAVEEN P BHATIA AND MAHAVEER P SHARMA.
Microbial Biotechnology, Tata Energy Research Institute,Habitat Place, Lodhi Road, New Delhi 110 003, INDIA.
A field experiment was studied for temporal abundance of viable spores belonging to three arbuscular mycorrhizal genera viz., Glomus, Gigaspora and Acaulospora in the rhizosphere of 30 months old Prosopis juliflora plants grown in a semi arid degraded Alfisol wasteland. The closely spaced P juliflora plants grown in twelve plots received different treatments including an uninoculated control. An obervation of interspecific competition and adaptation to edaphic and semi arid ecosystem revealed Glomus to be the most aggressive genera, maintaining highest spore population through out the study period and followed by Gigaspora and Acaulospora, respectively. Of all the temporal observations viz., zero time, 12th month, 18th month, 24th month and 30th month after transplantation, the increments recorded after 12 months for spore counts were 151.8, 24.4 and 68.02 per cent for Glomus, Gigaspora and Acaulospora, respectively. No correlation could be established between the spore counts of Glomus and Acaulospora and available soil P and organic matter contents at both the depths. Also, there was no relationship amongst the three genera for spore count values.
Key words: edaphic factors, Prosopis juliflora, Glomus, Gigaspora, Aculospora, spore abundance, interspecific competition