Microscopic fungi in the petroleum contaminated groundwater

Microscopic fungi represent the group of organisms-with high adaptability t o various habitats. During the period 1996-1998 altogether 198 samples of c ontaminated groundwater were investigated in the oil-contaminated locality Hricov. Microscopic fungi were found in all the samples. They belonged to t he class of the Deuteromycetes, Zygomycetes (family Mucoraceae) and Hemiasc omycetes. Number of the genera and species diversity ranged from I to 5 ide ntified taxa of the subdivisio Zygomycotina, 1-2 taxa from the class Hemias comycetes. More taxa of Deuteromycotina (15-25) were isolated from these gr oundwater samples. In total, Zygomycotina, Ascomycotina and Deuteromycotina representatives of the 48 taxa were isolated. The most commonly genera wer e Alternaria, Cladosporium, Fusarium, Mucor and Penicillium. In the Hricov groundwater samples the abundance of fungi ranged within 1 CFU mL(-1) to 39 CFU mL(-1) Regarding the frequency of genera and species the most frequent l was the genus Cladosporium with the species C. resinae, C. cladosporioide s and C. herbarum. Cladosporium resinae was typical species for Hricov grou ndwater. This species often grows on petroleum compounds and its presence w as expected. Genera and species of Penicillium and Fusarium were found less frequently. Some of these organisms participate in biodegradation of petro leum compounds with bacteria. Their numbers were lower than those of mesoph ylic and psychrophylic bacteria.