Vol 5, No 1, December 2014.

Aeromycobiota of the Mediterranean coastal area of Libya


Abstract: The fungal airspora of the Mediterranean coastal area in Libya were assessed using the exposed plate method on two isolation media. The area of study covered 32 localities extending from Tripoli (West) to Amsaed (East) near the border area with Egypt, with a total length of 1500 Km. From 32 exposures, a total of 1502 fungal catches were collected on Czapek's agar plates, however only 1 catch of Humicola fuscoatra was recovered on 20 % NaCl Czapek's agar. These fungal propagules were classified into 60 species related to 28 genera. The most common aeromycobiota were Alternaria (found in 28 exposures matching 39.35 % of total catch), Fusarium (25 and 19.51 %), Cladosporium (15 and 16.31 %), Ulocladium (21 and 8.66 %) and Aspergillus (13 and 6.26 %). Of these genera, the most commonly encountered species were Alternaria alternata (20.4 % of the total catch), Cladosporium sphaerospermum (10.5 %), C. cladosporioides (5.7 %), Ulocladium atrum (6.9 %), Fusarium solani (5.7 %), F. sambucinum (5.5 %) and Aspergillus niger (5.1 %). It could be concluded that dematiaceous hyphomycetes greatly outnumbered hyaline ones. Also, many of the commonly reported species are well-documented as human, animal and plant pathogens, as well as many of them possess the ability to deteriorate stored products and spoil feed- and food-stuffs. Key words: outdoor airspora, fungi, coastal area, Libya