Soil saprotrophic microfungi associated with roots of Calamagrostis epigeios on an abandoned deposit of toxic waste from smelter factory processing pyrite raw materials

Saprotrophic microfungi associated with roots of Calamagrostis epigeios gro wing in industrial waste contaminated with high concentrations of heavy met als (manganese, iron, zinc) were isolated on three different media. The iso lates were obtained from three plots colonized by plant cenoses, representi ng three different succession series of plant cover: initial, intermediate, and advanced. A total of 60 species of saprotrophic microfungi were found in the roots during three samplings. In addition, unidentified dark and whi te sterile mycelia were frequently isolated. Trichoderma koningil was frequ ent in the roots formed under the advanced phytocenose. The abundance of da rk sterile mycelium gradually decreased with progressing succession of the plant cover. Chrysosporium meradarium was rarely observed in the roots unde r the intermediate and advanced plant cenoses. Multivariate redundancy anal ysis showed that the effect of succession stage of phytocenoses on incidenc e of saprotrophic microfungi in mycocenoses present in roots was statistica lly significant. When the similarity of root mycocenoses of the three plots was studied using the similarity coefficients, the results proved that the similarities between the initial and intermediate or intermediate and adva nced mycocenoses were higher than that between the initial and advanced myc ocenoses. This corresponds to a different speed of succession of the mycoce noses. The results suggest that the dark sterile mycelia, abundant at slowl y developing plots, play a dominant role during the first stages of success ion where the plant cover is poor.