Nematode Community as a Tool to Monitor Ecosystem Health of Kembangkuning Mangrove Forest, Indonesia

Abstract

Previous studies show that nematode community structure is an efficient bio-tool to detect environmental changes and pollution impacts. Despite their presence and function in an ecosystem, the nematode community is never used to monitor the Kembangkuning mangrove, Segara Anakan. Thus, we intended to collect nematode functional trait data as a baseline to monitor the mangrove ecosystem health. The mangrove is a naturally growing forest dominated by Rhizophora apiculata and Aegiceras corniculatum, surrounded by settlements and industries. We extracted nematodes from mangrove sediment using the Baermann funnel method. The nematode functional traits were recorded as the baseline data for monitoring purposes. To further examine the nematode community variations, we correlated the nematode functional traits and composition to specific environmental variables. Canonical correspondence analysis revealed a 25.32% accumulated variance with four prominent variables associated with the trait distribution (potassium r = 0.56, water content r = -0.56, salinity r = 0.75, organic carbon r = 0.68). Comparison with published data indicates that the three most abundant nematodes, the non-selective deposit and epistrate feeders of our study site, are also observed in anthropogenically disturbed areas. This finding suggests that our study site requires continual health monitoring to maintain a relatively healthy forest ecosystem.