Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

HALOTOLERANCE OF CYANOBACTERIA ISOLATED FROM CULTIVATED ALKALINE SOIL OF A SEMI-ARID REGION

Harsh Manchanda and A. Kaushik

Abstract

Algal flora from the soils of a cultivated crop field of Sorghum in the semi-arid Rohtak region of Haryana was studied and the indigenous blue-green algae occurring in the alkaline soils of the field were screened for their halotolerance using artificially salinized culture medium (Fogg's nitrogen free culture medium salinized to EC 4.8 and 12 ds m' salt mixture of NaC1, Na2SO4, CaSO4 and MgC1-2). A total of 8 heterocystous and three nonheterocystous cyanobacteria were found to tolerate salinity under experimental conditions when soil inoculum was added to the salinized culture medium. Growth of various salt tolerant indigenous alga showed maximum density at EC 8 ds m (45 x 103 g' soil in rainy season and 66 2 102 gri soil in dry season) followed by that at EC 12 (32x i 103 g'l soil in rainy season and 35 x 102 g' soil in dry season) indicating the suitability of these algae nalgalization programmes operative in bio-reclamation of salt-affected soils.