Metabarcoding reveals that arboreal habitats contribute significantly to nematode diversity in different forest ecosystems

The forest canopy is populated by diverse communities of invertebrate animals, some of which are traditionally regarded as soil-dwellers. This phenomenon has been revealed for Oribatida and Collembola, but information about the diversity and distribution of free-living nematodes on tree bark and in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biodiversity and conservation 2024-12, Vol.33 (14), p.4371-4386
Main Authors: Kudrin, Alexey A., Salavatulin, Vladimir M., Mikryukov, Vladimir S., Sushchuk, Anna A., Kudrina, Serafima E., Konakova, Tatiana N., Nguyen, Trung Duc, Tiunov, Alexei V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bark
Biodiversity
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Canopies
Canopy
Climate Change/Climate Change Impacts
Conservation Biology/Ecology
DNA barcoding
Ecology
Ecosystems
Epiphytes
Forest ecosystems
Forests
Habitats
Life Sciences
Nematodes
Original Research
Plant cover
Soil
Soils
Terrestrial ecosystems
Tropical forests
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Summary:The forest canopy is populated by diverse communities of invertebrate animals, some of which are traditionally regarded as soil-dwellers. This phenomenon has been revealed for Oribatida and Collembola, but information about the diversity and distribution of free-living nematodes on tree bark and in epiphytes remains limited and fragmentary. In this study, we used DNA metabarcoding to assess diversity patterns of free-living nematodes in the canopy and compared them with soil communities in a boreal, temperate, and tropical monsoon forest. Our results indicate that compared to soil communities, arboreal nematodes exhibit strongly reduced alpha diversity, but increased beta diversity, while the total number of nematode OTUs is comparable in soil and the forest canopy. Considering the low taxonomic similarity (23–29%) between nematode communities in the soil and canopy, it is evident that arboreal habitats contribute significantly to the overall diversity of nematodes in forest ecosystems. In contrast to the soil nematode communities, there was no latitudinal diversity gradient in the canopy of the studied forests. Moreover, there was no decrease in the nematode OTU diversity with height, indicating that arboreal communities of nematodes and microarthropods are controlled by different mechanisms.
ISSN:0960-3115
1572-9710
DOI:10.1007/s10531-024-02960-4