Submit Manuscript

Journal of Biological Sciences

Year: 2011 | Volume: 11 | Issue: 6 | Page No.: 399-410
Facebook Twitter Digg Reddit Linkedin StumbleUpon E-mail

Article Trend

Total views 102

Authors

D.D. Tibuhwa

M.N. Muchane

C.W. Masiga

C. Mugoya

M. Muchai

Keywords

Research Article

An Inventory of Macro-fungi and their Diversity in the Serengeti-Masai Mara Ecosystem, Tanzania and Kenya

D.D. Tibuhwa, M.N. Muchane, C.W. Masiga, C. Mugoya and M. Muchai
The Serengeti-Mara ecosystem (SME) extends on both sides of Tanzania and Kenya. It comprises a unique and highly conserved ecosystem in the world. In spite of the importance of macro-fungi in maintaining and promoting productivity by enhancing nutrient cycling, researchers in the SME has been neglecting them. This work inventoried macrofungi in the drier and wetter side of SME based on 3 land use types: Crop land, woodland and grassland in protected and unprotected area, during both dry and wet season. The method based on fruit body recording which included fungi taxonomic field work and documents the macrofungi species presence. It also included analysis using diversity species indices for comparisons in terms of species diversity and richness across the habitats. A total of 92 species of macro-fungi distributed in 17 families and 33 genera were encountered. Most of these taxa (55.4%) were found in Tanzanian side while 44.5% were found in Kenyan side. Macro-fungi species of the family Lyophyllaceae (23%), Agaricaceae (21%) and Polyporaceae (12%) were the most commonly represented taxa in the ecosystems. Woodland habitat recorded the highest number of macro-fungi species (47%), followed by grassland (37%) while only few species were encountered in the agricultural farms (16%). The wet region recorded significantly high macro-fungi species compared to dry region. The Reyni diversity ordering showed tremendous decreases in species diversity in plots outside the park compared to those found inside the park. This result implies that disturbance affects myco-biota diversity which calls for the need of conservation and modification of agro-ecosystems. Introducing agro-forestry ectomycorrhiza tree species can transform the agro-ecosystems to mimic natural ecosystems and be an alternative source of mushroom resources.
PDF Fulltext XML References Citation

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *