Effect of Soil Temperature on Distribution and Population Dynamics of Fusarium Species

Environmental factors mainly temperature are believed to determine the distribution and population dynamics of Fusarium species in a natural ecosystem.Species may be restricted in their distribution by adaptation to specific sets of soil environmental conditions. Population dynamics of five Fusarium species representative of different climatic conditions were studied at three levels of temperature (13-18 / 19-24 / 25-30°C) and constant water potential (field capacity). Temperature had a significant influence on the population level of all test Fusarium species. Fusarium sambucinum showed noticeable reduction of population at warm temperatures. The population of F. solani and F. compaction were higher at high temperatures. The population of cosmopolitan species, F. equiseli showed little change at all experimental conditions, Fusarium acuminalum did not compete well with other species in this experiment, its population being low at all treatments