Diversity and distribution of trophic guilds of nematode assemblages in the Ham Luong estuary, Ben Tre province

Abstract

Studying the trophic guild of nematode assemblages contribute to infer their foods, therefor interprete the aquatic foodwebs and assess the environmental quality of ecosystem. Nematode communities play important roles in the aquatic foodweb, as the decomposers break down the detritus or as the intermediate chains in transferring of material and energy from decompsers as bacteria and producers as microalgae to higher consumers. The present study aimed to analyse the diversity and distribution of nematode trophic groups at six subtidal sations of the Ham Luong estuary in Ben Tre province in the dry season 2017. The results found four groups of feeding guild including swallowers, tear & swallowers, chewers, and suction-feeders. Two groups of swallowers and tear & swallowers were dominant, accounting for high proportions in the assemblage. While swallowers higly distributed in the upstream, tear & swallowers was high abundant in the downstream, chewers mostly presented in the middle part of the estuary. Nevertheless, suction-feeders was scarce distribution in the upstream side. The indices of trophic diversity were in average values, and less variation along the course of the estuary. The differences in the distribution of nematode trophic guilds might be resuted by the heterogeneities in the benthic environment, which need to be investigated in the next studies.