Nematodes as bioindicators of the state of disturbance of edaphic ecosystems irrigated with natural and polluted water

Abstract

Proper soil assessment requires an understanding of the response of edaphic food webs. Therefore, in this study, the disturbance status of soils irrigated with natural and contaminated water was determined using edaphic nematofauna food webs. Preliminary sampling and analysis were performed to determine the number of subsamples for each type of soil (pasture, alfalfa crop, fig and willow) irrigated with natural and contaminated water, with the number of subsamples determined another sampling was performed, the samples were labeled and transported to the laboratory; with the data obtained, the NINJA program was used to calculate the food web percentages and food web indices. In soil ecosystems irrigated with natural water, there was a high percentage of omnivorous and predatory nematodes; and in soil ecosystems irrigated with contaminated water, there was a high percentage of bacteriovores and fungivores. The trophic network indices indicated that the edaphic ecosystems irrigated with natural water had little anthropic influence and therefore a greater number of healthy soils, and in the edaphic ecosystems irrigated with contaminated water there was a greater anthropic influence and therefore a greater number of disturbed soils.