EDAPHIC MYCOFLORA RECOVERY IN TROPICAL FORESTS AFTER SHIFTING CULTIVATION

Recovery following abandonment of cultivation was analyzed on hydromorphic and ferralitic soils at different times of the same year and during successive years in the Ivory Coast. Temporal and particularly seasonal (intraannual) variability was detected in the fungi although they did not seem to distinguish clearly between the 2 soil types. Substratum as a determinant of diversity in the distribution of soil mycoflora was perceptible only in the most unfavourable meteorological period. Successional (interannual) variation seems to be superimposed on meteorological variation, particularly in the dry years of 1982 and 1983. By contrast, different soils and disturbances affect physical-chemical variability. Ferralitic soils seem particularly fragile since they recover more slowly than hydromorphic ones. -from Authors