CORRELATION OF SPORE COUNT AND ROOT COLONIZATION BY ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAL FUNGI IN NICKEL CONTAMINATED SOILS

Microbial populations are getting drastically hampered in terms of their diversity or activity by the extreme concentrations of heavy metals. In this study, we have focused on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) to look how it gets affected by Nickel (Ni) concentration. So, the objective for this work was to observe in what way the range of AMF is affected with the addition of sewage-amended sludge containing Ni. It was seen that AMF ecotypes were showing consistent variations in their Ni tolerance ability. All kinds of gradation of AMF ecotypes ranging from highly sensitive to highly tolerant to the presence of metals in soil were observed. There a continuous drop in total AMF spore numbers was seen with increasing Ni concentrations in the soil. Mycorrhiza is a mutualistic relationship between plant roots and fungal hyphae. Different locations in and around Delhi were selected to do survey of percentage root colonization and mycorrhizal spore density in soil. Soil sampling was administered in June 2019 from surface to 30 cm depth. There was variation within the mycorrhizal colonization and spore number. Therefore, this study revealed that there's positive correlation between mycorrhizal infection within the roots and the spore counts of the soil around them. The increase in number of spores within the rhizosphere soil was directly proportional to the degree of colonization.