Keywords
Ingoldian fungi
Venezuela
How to Cite
Abstract
Aquatic hyphomycetes are a heterogeneous group of microorganisms that are characterized by their abilities to colonize, degrade and modify the plant material in the water, allowing its use by other organisms living in the aquatic ecosystem. Due to the importance of this hyphomycetes for the energy budget in low order lotic systems, this study was carried out in order to determine, in a preliminary way, the species richness of the aquatic hyphomycetes in four streams located in the northern slope of the Cordillera de la Costa (Venezuela), and also to assess if there is any similarity between the communities of hyphomycetes present in these streams. We collected samples of water foam (three per sampling site) and identified the species of hyphomycetes; then, we performed a cluster analysis to evaluate similarities between streams as a function of species richness. A total of 27 species were identified: 20 at Cuyagua stream, 10 at Cumboto stream, 18 at Cata stream, 17 at San Miguel creek (reservoir) and 2 at the estuarine environment of San Miguel creek. Based on species composition of the aquatic hyphomycetes, the Cata stream and San Miguel creek showed the highest similarity between sites, and both of them were similar to the Cuyagua stream; the Cumboto stream showed the lesser similarity when compared with the rest of the sampling sites.References
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