Effects of organic, low input, conventional management practices on soil nematode community under greenhouse conditions

Abstract

A comparative study of organic, low input, conventional vegetable greenhouse systems was conducted to assess the effect of management practices on the soil nematode community. Bacterivores were the most dominant trophic group in all three systems with a mean proportion of over 80%, followed by omnivore-carnivores. In general, organic management practices increased the abundance of total nematodes, bacterivores, fungivores, and omnivore-carnivores in comparison with low input and conventional management practices. Though inhibitory effects of plant feeders were found in organic and low input systems, these effects were more evident in organic systems. However, small differences were observed in the composition of trophic groups and fauna analysis. All three systems displayed enriched soil conditions and structured food webs. We inferred that the bottom-up effect resulting from organic input in the soil food web may play a more important role than the disruption effects under our high input greenhouse conditions. The Shannon index (H′) and genus dominance (λ) suggested that in greenhouse conditions, excessive manure input would cause a decrease in nematode diversity but increase the dominance, particularly for enrichment opportunists. We concluded that management practices under greenhouse conditions were more influential on nematode biomass (including trophic groups) than community structure.

Organic Vegetable Cultivation Reduces Resource and Environmental Costs While Increasing Farmers’ Income in the North China Plain

“…A long-term experiment for vegetable growth was conducted beginning in March 2002 at Quzhou Experimental Station of China Agricultural University [7]. The experiment site was located in the north of Quzhou County (36 • 52 N, 115 • 01 E) in Handan City, Hebei Province, North China Plain.…”

“…At present, there are many studies on greenhouse vegetable production systems, mainly focusing on the agronomy and economic benefits of the cultivation modes [6] and microbial diversity [7]. Some researchers have also studied the environmental impact of greenhouse vegetable production, but have mainly focused on a certain aspect, such as greenhouse gas emissions [8] or pollution of reactive nitrogen [9].…”

Modeling Nitrogen Fate and Water and Nitrogen Use Efficiencies under Different Greenhouse Vegetable Production Systems Using the WHCNS-Veg Model

“…These traditional vegetable production systems exhibit substantial water and fertilizer usage, accompanied by low efficiencies in water and nitrogen utilization (WUE and NUE) and large amounts of nitrate leaching [10,11]. Numerous studies have shown that optimizing N rates and adjusting water irrigation strategies can effectively reduce nitrate leaching in greenhouse vegetable fields [3,10].…”

Impact of trophic ecologies on the whereabouts of nematodes in soil

“…Studies showed a negative effect of tillage on food web complexity (Ugarte et al, 2013), an increase in overall abundance of nematodes in response to organic matter inputs (Li et al, 2014), and strong correlations between soil nutrient status and the number of bacterivores Pan et al, 2010). Crop type was shown to affect composition of nematode assemblages to a larger extent than farming system Neher, 1999).…”