Students Corner & Help
Microbial features visible to eye
Sports activity of Microconcern-the PG club.

Fruits ripen and hydrolyze their material to allow the liberation of the seeds after dispersal. The process is initiated by the enzymes of the fruit itself. Once the fruit skin becomes permeable/porous or disrupted, the readily available sugars allow fast growth of bacteria. Fungi succeed them to grow over the biopolymers like cellulose and lignin.

Microbiotic crusts are called cryptobiotic crusts when cryptogams like mosses start appearing in it.

Microbiotic crusts are communities of microorganisms that grow over the soil and may appear like crusts in dry seasons. They help binding of the soil and engineering the soil structure. this in turn improves capacity of soil to hold water and minerals. The nutrients added by them allow succession of larger plants. These are important tools in reducing soil erosion and desertification by way of dune stabilization.

Many plants especially those in the arid regions, produce profuse root exudates that support microbial flora around them and cause the soil particles to bind on the rootlets in the form of thick sheaths.

Cultivation of algae on solid surface- such growth is known as Algal Turfs.

Sailana Cactus garden

Sailana near Ratlam used to have the largest Cactus garden in Asia. But the cost of maintenance and urbanisation pressures have reduced it to a small patch being maintained by the scions of the Nawab of Sailana. Shear size of these plants is mesmerizing. These harbour endophytic microorganisms and rhisozheaths.