Soil Nematode Assemblages in Natural European Peatlands of the Horná Orava Protected Landscape Area, Slovakia

Abstract

An investigation of the soil nematode communities in four natural European peatlands of the Protected Landscape Area Horna Orava, Slovakia, was conducted to determine the diversity of the associated soil nematode community structures. A total of 112 nematode species belonging to 66 nematode genera were detected. Nineteen species, including a root-knot nematode species Meloidogyne kralli, were recorded in Slovakia for the first time, increasing the number of soil nematodes recorded from 704 to 723. This high diversity was associated with the occurrence of taxa preferring the wet soil conditions such as Ditylenchus intermedius, Epidorylaimus agilis, Metateratocephalus crassidens, Helicotylenchus hydrophilus, Mesorhabditis irregularis, Semitobrilus pellucidus. The number of species and genera did not correlate with the nematode abundance, as the highest number of species and genera where not found in sites with the highest number of nematodes. Feeding type composition was similar at all of the investigated peatlands and bacteriovores were the dominant trophic group (50 %) with a preponderance of Rhabditis nematodes. The ecological indices (MI, PPI, ∑MI, MI2-5 and PPI/MI ratio) indicated that the native ecosystems studied were relatively mature and stable, with a B/F ratio indicating a prevalence of bacterial decomposition pathways corresponding to high values of the NCR index