Abundance and diversity of major cultivable fungal flora of River Jhelum in Kashmir Himalaya

The present work was carried out in the in river Jhelum of Kashmir Himalaya to assess the density and diversity of fungal flora, to isolate and identify the fungi from the water along with some physical parameters like pH and temperature which was carried out between June-November, 2011 at four sites differing from each other markedly in terms of biotic and abiotic factors. During the study, a variety of fungal strains were isolated and identified from the water of river at the four sites. The highest viable count of fungi was observed at site III with a cfu/ml of 3.6 x 10 in the month of July and the lowest viable count at site IV with a cfu/ml of 2.7×10 in the month of November. Among most dominant of the isolate identified 20% were Aspergillus spp. followed by 4% Pencillium spp. and 4% Candida spp. Comparative analysis of different types of colonies found at the four sites during the study indicates that the fungal density was dominant in the month of July.