Effect of mechanical disturbances on nematode communities in arable land

Abstract

SummaryNematode communities were used as bioindicators of changes in agroecosystems caused by anthropogenic factors. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of plowing and harrowing on nematode communities structure in comparison to "no tillage" treatments. The effects of mechanical disturbing of nematodes were determined on four soil treatments. Differences in nematode community structure were compared between two tillage regimes: standard tillage and no tillage. Research was conducted in 2000, in Kneževo near Osijek. Plowing had impact on increasing of bacterivorous nematodes and decreasing of fungivorous nematodes. Pratylenchus, Helicotylenchus and Tylenchus were dominant plant-feeding nematodes in no tillage treatments, while in plowing treatments Pratylenchus and Tylenchus were dominant. Abundance of Aphelenchoides decreased significantly after plowing. Tillage affected nematode communities in the soil ecosystem by changing the trophic structure and gave a decreasing, but not statistically significant, trend in MI.

Reduced tillage, but not organic matter input, increased nematode diversity and food web stability in European long‐term field experiments

“…In group A, reduced tillage led to a shift in nematode community structures, in agreement with previous studies (Brmež, Ivezić, & Raspudić, ; Griffiths, Daniell, Donn, & Neilson, ; Okada & Harada, ). In this group of LTEs, nematode beta diversity was affected by the organic matter additions, and OTU diversity was lower in the plots with high organic matter additions, which might suggest positive effects of the organic matter added on a few opportunistic nematodes.…”

“…Since lower values of CI are associated with faster rates of decomposition and nutrient turnover, our results suggest that changes in nematode communities under reduced tillage may contribute to the increased capability of the system to retain nutrients and store carbon (Griffiths et al, ). The higher relative and absolute abundance of herbivorous nematodes in reduced tillage compared to conventional tillage is in line with previous studies (Brmež et al, ; Freckman & Ettema, ; Fu et al, ; Treonis et al, , ), and can be explained by a higher incidence of rootsin the field, stimulating this nematode group (Minton, ; You et al, ) Our results indicate a possible trade‐off in reduced tillage systems in terms of soil processes, and that in these types of systems care must be taken regarding the assessment and control of herbivorous nematodes. However, the higher alpha diversity, MI and SI found in reduced tillage could indicate that the activity of herbivorous populations might be controlled by a more stable and structured food web.…”

Agricultural intensification and urbanization negatively impact soil nematode richness and abundance: a meta-analysis

“…These results supported the hypothesis that the richness of nematodes is higher in undisturbed ecosystems than in human-disturbed ecosystems (Wasilewska, 1979;Bongers and Bongers, 1998;Briar et al, 2007;Darby et al, 2007). These results were congruent with the general statement that ecosystems with less or no disturbance support greater richness of soil biota (Hooper et al, 2005) consistent with the results of Hanel (1993), Ivezic et al (2000), Neher et al (2005, Brmez et al (2007), Yeates (2007, Jiao et al (2008), Cardoso et al (2012Cardoso et al ( , 2015. High richness in forest points to the stability of the ecosystem.…”

Composition and vertical distribution of free living and plant parasitic nematodes in hop gardens in the Czech Republic

“…Renčo et al (2010a) established that decreasing abundances of the majority of omnivores and predators during the July were positively correlated with decreasing precipitation and high temperatures. Omnivores and predators have great sensitivity to disturbances (Bongers et al, 1991;Brmež et al, 2006). The high temperatures, low amount of precipitation and frequent agricultural practices (tillage and application of pesticides and fertilizers) should be the main factors that influenced the abundances of nematodes belonging to these trophic groups in the investigated hop gardens.…”