Rain-borne fungi in stemflow and throughfall of six tropical palm species

摘要

The present survey documents rain-borne hyphomycetes in stemflow and throughfall of six palm species on the west coast of India during the monsoon season. A total of 61 species were recovered. Irrespective of the palms, throughfall was represented bya higher number of species than stemflow. Pearson correlation was significant and positive between richness of species and conidia with air humidity, air temperature, water temperature and water conductivity. Except for Areco, Shannon diversity was higher in throughfall compared to stemflow. Jaccard's percent similarity of species in stemflow was lowest between Cocos vs. Roystonea (16%) and highest between Borassus vs. Caryota (55.5%), while in throughfall it was lowest between Areca vs. Livistona (16.7%) and highest between Caryota vs. Cocos and Livistona vs. Cocos (50%).Two-way ANOVA revealed that the richness of species and that of conidia were significantly more dependent on palm species than stemflow or throughfall. The number of rain-borne fungiin palm species exceeded that in the nearby coastal stream with an overlap of about 40%.