Contribution towards the study of the Madrid air mycoflora. I. Station diversity and seasonal variation.

The Madrid air mycoflora is made up of a number of groups which we have named "the normal mycoflora", since the frequency of its appearance was high. The other big group whose frequency of appearance was much less we have named "the sporadic mycoflora". The mean concentration of spores in the Madrid air is 375 spores/m3. From the study, by areas, of the city, we find that the fungal species which make up the normal flora are the same in all of them although their frequency of appearance presents small fluctuations. The fungal species which constitute the sporadic flora were not present in all of the observation stations, probably due to fluctuations which determine their small numbers. From the diversity study of the fungi population in the ecosystem, we can deduce that the two sample methods give us similar results. For this type of study therefore, the volumetric method is just as valid as the gravimetric. From the study of the seasonal spectrums of diversity we find that this fluctuates throughout the year within the limits of 1,78 and 3,61 bits/colony, which means that the ecosystem which is the object of study, is not subject to big disturbances.