Soil Nematodes of Northern Meadows and Agrocoenoses as Bioindicators of the Transformation Degree in Soil Ecosystems

This paper examines the effect exercised by agricultural intensity on soil nematode communities inhabiting natural meadows, hayfields, and monocrop agrocoenoses in the Republic of Karelia. The diversity of the soil nematode fauna in natural meadows is similar to that in hayfields, but it significant...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Russian journal of ecology 2023-08, Vol.54 (4), p.311-321
Main Authors: Matveeva, E. M., Sushchuk, A. A., Kalinkina, D. S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bacteria
Biocenoses
Bioindicators
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Discriminant analysis
Ecology
Ecosystems
Environment
Food chains
Food webs
Indicator species
Land use
Life Sciences
Meadows
Nematodes
Organic matter
Predators
Relative abundance
Soil fauna
Soils
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Summary:This paper examines the effect exercised by agricultural intensity on soil nematode communities inhabiting natural meadows, hayfields, and monocrop agrocoenoses in the Republic of Karelia. The diversity of the soil nematode fauna in natural meadows is similar to that in hayfields, but it significantly decreases in agrocoenoses. The abundance of nematodes reaches the highest values in soils of meadows and decreases as land use intensity goes up. Bacterial feeders predominate in the eco-trophic structure of nematode communities in all types of biocoenoses reaching the maximum share in agrocoenoses. The relative abundance of predators and nematodes associated with plants in agrocoenoses is significantly lower compared to natural meadows and hayfields. Ecological indices computed for nematode communities indicate the presence of a stable and multicomponent soil ecosystem in meadows. The CI index reflecting the predominant pathway of organic matter decomposition indicates an active participation of bacteria in the destruction. Values of the SI and CI indices decrease in agrocoenoses, while the EI index increases. Such a ratio between indices specifies simplified food web and a disturbed soil ecosystem in agrocoenoses. Discriminant analysis shows that, of all studied biocoenoses, only agrocoenoses and natural meadows can be differentiated statistically significantly based on differences in the SI index. However, the identified positive effect of latitude on the SI index in agrocoenoses indicates that the application of this parameter to northern ecosystems has some limitations.
ISSN:1067-4136
1608-3334
DOI:10.1134/S1067413623040070