| Abstract: | A field under rice-wheat rotation was selected near Chengdu, China, to study the population of Rhizoctonia solani anastomosis group 1 (AG-l), pathogen causing rice sheath blight disease, in natural soil ecosystem. Inocula of the fungus recovered from the field were divided into three types, i.e., sclerotia, free mycelium retained in the soil passed through a 0.355mm sieve, and colonized plant debris which was subdivided into small colonized debris retained between 2.00 and 0.355mm sieves and large colonized debris retained on 2.00mm sieve after wet screening. Quantitative estimation of the three types of inocula in one year indicated that small colonized debris was the dominant inoculum type for most of the time. The population peaked in March and September at 1 210and 480 colonized debris 100 g-1 air-dry soil respectively, and fell down in December and August to 0 and 177 colonized debris 100 g-1 air-dry soil respectively. Free mycelium was only detectable in March, September and October with 1 209, 7.9 and 14.5 μg fresh wt myceliumg-1 air-dry soil respectively, which corresponded to the two peaks and the second highest level of small debris density in the year. Viable sclerotia and large colonized debris were rare with populations ranging from 0 to 3 for sclerotia and 0 to 14 for large colonized debris 100 g-1 air-dry soil, but were the main structures to survive over winter. It was expected that soil temperature was the main factor determining population dynamics of R.solani AG-1 in natural soil. Optimum temperature for population increasing is predicted to be around 15℃, with a range from 10 to 25℃. Viability tests indicated that 60.9% sclerotia could survive after 265 d being buried in natural sandy loam in field conditions in Beijing, while colonized rice straw debris (0.5 - 1.0 cm long) could not yield the fungus on medium plates after 88d of being buried under the same conditions. |
