Fungi inhabiting surface sediments of Shatt Al-Arab River and its creeks at Basrah, Iraq

Abstract EN

The mycobiota of surface sediments from Shatt Al-Arab river and its creeks at Basrah city was surveyed by three isolation methods.

One hundred and forty one species assigned to 70 genera were isolated from 40 sediment samples.

Some species were found abundant with high frequency while others were frequently recorded.

The most frequent species were in order: Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus terreus, Fusarium redolens, Trichoderma viride, Aspergillus fumigatus, Fusarium solani, Aspergillus flavus, Absidia corymbifera, Fusarium oxysporum, Penicillium notatum, Aspergillus candidus and Stachybotrys atra.

Several novel species which have been appeared in the literature from the same region were also detected from sediment of Shatt Al-Arab.

The majority of the detected species are well known as a soil inhabiting fungi.

Our findings are compared with a similar survey on the fungal flora in sediments in several parts of the world.

Key words: surface sediment, fungi Shatt Al-Arab, Iraq.