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Monitoring microbial aeroflora using vegetable waste media: an ecological aspect

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Abstract

For isolation of aeromicroflora in ecologically different zones, a liquid vegetable waste, deproteinised leaf juice (DLJ) was used instead of usual media. DLJ samples from three different plants, cowpea (Vigna sinensis), turnip (Brassica campestris) and radish (Raphanus sativus), were used in order to determine their efficiency as potential growth media for different types of microbes. Four different ecological zones of West Bengal, India were selected to study the aeromicroflora. The zones were as follows: (i) densely populated and industrially polluted Calcutta (CAL); (ii) plateau region of western part of the state (WEST); (iii) Terai region of Northern Bengal (TER); (iv) sandy coastal zone of Midnapore district of Southern Bengal (SB). Each zone was subdivided into three subzones. The variation in population of fungi, bacteria and actinomycetes among these zones was studied. The relative abundance and species diversities of microbes were noted. The study indicates that pollution and ecological diversity both play important roles in controlling the above two factors.

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Chanda, S., Chakrabarti, S. & Sasmal, B.C. Monitoring microbial aeroflora using vegetable waste media: an ecological aspect. Aerobiologia 14, 341–346 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02694303

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02694303

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