Microorganisms associated with dump sites in Port Harcourt Metropolis, Nigeria

A total of ten soil samples were collected from four different dump sites in Port Harcourt Metropolis. The samples were examined for temperature, pH, total heterotrophic bacterial and fungal counts. The mean temperature values of the soils ranged from 27 to 28°C while the mean pH values ranged from 6.5 to 7.8. The total heterotrophic bacterial population ranged from 2.4 × 107 to 1.2 × 108 cfu/g while total fungal population ranged from 4.8 × 106 to 2.3 × 107 cfu/g. The bacteria population isolated from the waste dump sites were: Bacillus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella, Proteus, Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus and Streptococcus species while the fungi included Aspergillus, Fusarium, Mucor, Penicillium and Saccharomyces species. The results showed that there was significant difference at 0.05 confidence limits between the pH levels at R(Ra:R1,R2; Rb:R3,R4) and U ( Ua:U1,U2; Ub: U3,U4). There was no significant difference at 0.05 confidence limits between the temperature levels, total heterotrophic bacterial and fungal counts at sites R and U. In dump sites R and U, there were no significant differences between the bacterial and fungal counts obtained in both sites.    Key words: Dump sites, Port Harcourt metropolis, bacteria and fungi.