Aeromycological studies over some paddy fields in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra state

Airborne microbial analysis revealed in 50 components of fungal spore types of which 2 belongs to Zygomycotina; 3 belongs to Basidiomycotina; 17 belongs to Ascomycotina, 28 belong to Deuteromycotina, and three of other types in 2009 and 2010. Among all these type of spore groups, Deuteromycotina contributed highest percentage and lowest percentage contribution was found to be that of Zygomycotina to the total airspora. The order of dominance of airborne microbial groups was Deuteromycotina contributed (61.02% and 60.84%) followed by Ascomycotina (23.27% and 24.92%), Basidiomycotina (9.44% and 7.74%), Zygomycotina (0.66% and 0.80%) and other types (5.62% and 5.69%) in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Throughout the period of investigation the concentration of Cladosporium (6.98 &7.31 %), Alternaria (3.79 & 2.88 %), Helminthosporium (3.81& 3.96 %), Nigrospora (3.26 & 3.3 %) & Cercospora was found to be more as compare to other types of spores and concentration of Meliola (0.20 & 0.24 %), Cunninghamella (0.21 & 0.25 %) was found to be minimum as compare to other types of spores. During the investigation it was found that the fungal spores occurred were mostly parasitic on paddy crop, which lead to disease formations. Eventually pathogenic types like Curvularia, Helminthosporium, Alternaria, Nigrospora and phoma species were recorded. The weather parameters like daily minimum and maximum temperature, minimum and maximum Relative humidity, rain fall and wind speed were compared. It has clearly brought out the correlation between the spore concentration in the atmosphere, meteorological data and disease incidence in paddy crop.