Abstract
Fungi occur in mangroves as saprobes, pathogens, and endophytes of a wide range of timber host substrates and may also be isolated from the water column and bottom sediments. In this study, we explore their biodiversity within a single mangrove forest at Muthupet, Tamil Nadu, India. The study showed a rich diversity of fungi on five decaying host substrates (out of seven host substrates) collected in the intertidal zone, resulting in 78 marine fungal taxa in 67 genera from 11 field collections and 6215 samples. Of the 78 taxa, 56 species (in 47 genera) belong to the
Ascomycota
and two species (2 genera) to
Basidiomycota
with the remaining 20 species representing asexual fungi (18 genera). Some fungal species were repeatedly reported:
Verruculina enalia
(21.65%) was the most frequently collected fungus;
Marinosphaera mangrovei
(9.2%),
Rimora mangrovei
(9.15%),
Okeanomyces cucullatus
(8.7%),
Halocryptosphaeria bathurstensis
(6%) in the frequent category,
Paraconiothyrium cyclothyroides
(4.5%),
Hysterium rhizophorae
(3.5%),
Sclerococcum haliotrephum
(3.6%),
Lulworthia
sp. (3.6%), and
Farasanispora avicenniae
(3%) were infrequently collected. Of the host substrates,
Avicennia marina
wood pieces harbored 49 fungal species of which 19 were unique. Two-way ANOVA revealed that fungal species richness was not affected irrespective of the collection season (
P
= 0.239) but was significantly dependent on the wood species (
P
< 0.001).