Diversity of soil algae in the farmlands of khasi hills, Meghalaya
International Journal of Development Research
Diversity of soil algae in the farmlands of khasi hills, Meghalaya
Received 16th January, 2018; Received in revised form 24th February, 2018; Accepted 20th March, 2018; Published online 30th April, 2018
Copyright © 2018, Carefulness M. Dirborne and Papiya Ramanujam. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The present paper deals with the structure of soil algal community in four farmlands located in Khasi Hills, Meghalaya. The chosen farmlands were corn field (Zea mays L.), rice field (Oryzasativa Linn.), vegetable farm (Solanumtuberosum L., Lactucasativa L. and Brassica oleracea var. capitata f. alba) and citrus plantation (Citrusreticulata Blanco.). A total of 158 algal taxa have been identified, out of which Chlorophyta+Xanthophyceae members (64 taxa) form the major group, followed by Bacillariophyceae (62 taxa) and Cyanobacteria (32 taxa). Species diversity was recorded higher in rice field (1.55- 2.62) followed by vegetable farm (0.69-2.10), corn field (1.05-2.01) and citrus plantation (0.98-1.99). Use of fertiliser, insecticides and pesticides adversely affected the composition and abundance of the algal community in corn field, vegetable field and citrus plantation.
