Fungi as Indicators of Soil Conditions: Soil Fungi from South Africa

Abstract

AN attempt has been made, by the isolation of fungi from the upper six inches of soil, to determine differences in a series of experimental plots in the Transvaal Highveld, on the Frankenwald Experimental Station, attached to the University of the Witwatersrand. The area was constant in its soil type, which was granitic in origin, sandy, lacking organic matter, and with a pH of about 4·5. The grass cover was fairly uniform. The area was made up of plots which had been, for the past seven years, subjected to different cultural treatments. One had been burnt and afterwards lightly grazed ; a second burnt and heavily grazed ; a third burnt but not grazed ; a fourth, control plot, was neither burnt nor grazed. The treatment had been continuous, the various phases alternating at regular intervals.