Identification of soil microbial population under different land use

Abstract

Soil microorganism is important for the restoration, sustainability, balancing of soil ecosystem and organic matter transfer. The diversity of the microbial community in soil is closely related to the functions and structure of its surrounding ecosystem. The aim of this research work is principally on the identification of microbial population under different land use types in Akure, Nigeria. The land use types were oil palm, teak plantation, unclear forest, and cassava and sugar plantations. The soil samples were collected at depth of 0–15 cm, 15–30 cm and 30–75 cm on each land use area and were taken to the laboratory for microbial analysis. Microbial analysis was carried out using the dilution spread plates techniques of identification of microbial population. The bacteria isolates were identified by morphological and biochemical characterization using taxonomy scheme of Bergeys manual of determinative bacteriology. The fungal isolate were stained with lactophenol cotton blue and observed under the microscope for identification. The result showed that, there are 40 different species of bacteria and 10 fungal strains isolated from all the land use types. Some of the isolated bacterial species were from phylumactinobacter, bacteriodietes, firmicutes, proteobacter and that of fungi were representatives of phylum Ascomycota and Zycomycota. The data on bacteria and fungi were analyzed using ANOVA. The means of bacteria and fungi occurrence were separated using least significance difference at 5% level. It was found that the cassava land showed higher diversity of microbial population, this might be attributed to the effect of tillage on the land year by year which enhanced the free movement of air and encourages the availability of microbial population due to the presence of some microorganism in the tuber of cassava which had a great influence on soil organic matter contents via mineralization and decomposition.