Leaf litter degradation by microbes and macro invertebrates in mid reaches stream of eastern ghats

The present work implies about the role of microorganisms and macro invertebrates in leaf litter degradation. Five fungal genera and five bacterial genera were isolated from the collected leaf litter samples. Bacillus sp and Aspergillus niger were as the dominant in bacterial and fungal genera respectively. The leaf litter was associated with the scrapers like Baetis sp, Choroterpes sp and Hydropsyche sp. The decline in microbial population was observed in February and it is due to the increase of the scrapers. The reason for the increase of scrapers is a non-shady environment which normally they tend to live that happens during February. The riparian cover becomes the governing body in controlling the population dynamics of scrapers and microbes. The result implies that fungi were the first one to colonize the leaf litter and it coexists with bacteria and finally leaf litters are degraded by scrapers.