The diversity of yeasts in the agricultural soil

One hundred and eleven yeast strains were isolated from 60 agricultural soil samples. The samples were taken from four various fields located in the southwest of Slovakia. Cryptococcus laurentii, Candida maltosa, Metschnikowia pulcherrima, and Sporobolomyces salmonicolor were the predominant species in the samples collected from all four types of fields. These species represented 78.4-86.6% of the total yeast counts. The results obtained enabled comparisons to be made between forest and agricultural soil yeast population. We have found out that the yeast population in tilled soils was significantly reduced. The number of yeasts in the tilled soils ranged from 40 to 6.8 x 10(3) CFU/g soil and the average number reached approximately 1.12 x 10(3). This number is more than ten times lower in comparison with the forest soils.