Mycobiota of soils of urban territories with different levels of anthropogenic load

Anthropogenic forcing has a huge impact on the formation of the ecosystem of modern cities, including the composition of the mycobiota of the urban environment. The paper presents the results of mycological studies of soil samples taken in the city of Kazan in areas divided into recreational and transport functional areas with different levels of anthropogenic load. More than 60 species of fungi belonging to 15 genera, including 20 species common to soils in both zones were identified. Penicillium sp., Fusarium sp., Rhizomucor sp., Trichoderma viride were shown to dominate in undisturbed natural areas, and in soils of the urban environment there was much more often found the presence of Alternaria sp., Aspergillus sp., Candida sp., Rhizopus sp., Trichophyton sp. In areas with good natural light the percentage of samples with low contamination by fungi was established to be significantly higher than in shaded areas: 16.7% and 7.1% in the recreational area; and 12.5% and 0% in the transport zone correspondingly. Potentially pathogenic species of fungi were detected in 80% of samples of recreational and in 95% of samples of transport areas. Dark-colored species (including Aspergillus, Alternaria, etc.) were shown to be more common in soils of transport zone, and Trichophyton sp. and Scopulariopsis sp. — in soils of recreational zone. The evaluation of mycological hazard index allowed to estimate the condition of the soil of Kazan as satisfactory for 80% of sites of recreational and 65% — of the transport area. The average value of the mycological hazard index for recreational areas was 2.7 and for the transport areas - 4.2. Results indicate to regular mycological monitoring would be desirable for the normalization of the mycological environment, significantly reducing the risk of mycosis, mycotoxicosis and mycogenic allergies, and should help to ensure sanitary-epidemiological welfare of the population.