Diversity of Glomalean spores from natural, disturbed and revegetated communities growing on nutrient-poor tropical soils

Spores of Glomalean fungi from natural! disturbed and revegetated communities were sampled, and their density, richness and Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index were calculated. The removal of the soil organic layer from undisturbed communities caused a sharp decrease in the diversity of spores. The revegetation of degraded areas produced a significant increase in Glomalean spore numbers, bur their diversity was not restored to the original values found in undisturbed ecosystems. The comparison of revegetated areas with the undisturbed ones showed also a change in species composition: Scutellospora and Gigaspora spp. were absent in samples from severely disturbed as well as revegetated sites. Associated with the reduction in the diversity of Glomalean spores a change in composition of plant community is expected. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. Ali rights reserved.