<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>Analysis of soil nematode feeding groups and functional guilds were used as a valuable tool to detect heavy metal pollution. Effects of cadmium (Cd) at 5 mg/kg, mercury (Hg) at 20mg/kg, combined Cd and Hg at 5+20mg/kg on the nematode communities were studied after three months application. Nematodes were collected from soil in rhizosphere of Morning glories (<italic>Pharhiris nil</italic>) which were applied as heavy metal accumulators and were grown in the experimental pots. Both single and combined heavy metals had marked effects on the nematode abundance, life-history strategies and feeding type composition. Bacteriovores and c-p 2 group were found to be the most abundant trophic group and functional guild, respectively. <italic>Acrobeloides</italic> and <italic>Pratylenchus</italic> were the most two abundant genera, decreasing number of them was responsible for the significant difference between control and polluted treatments. Cd-5 and Cd-Hg 5+20 presented lower values of nematode diversity index (H’) and evenness index (J’) than Hg-20. The combination of Cd and Hg showed lower nematode trophic diversity (TD), in comparison with single Cd or Hg. Conversely, heavy metals addition exhibited no pronounced effect on Maturity index (MI), structural index (SI) and enrichment index (EI). Our results demonstrate that genera composition is a better indicator to short-term heavy metal effects than some common indicator indices and emphasize that deeper assemblage analyses are needed for a correct interpretation of short-term disturbance on soil nematodes.</p></abstract>

Analysis of soil nematode feeding groups and functional guilds were used as a valuable tool to detect heavy metal pollution. Effects of cadmium (Cd) at 5 mg/kg, mercury (Hg) at 20mg/kg, combined Cd and Hg at 5+20mg/kg on the nematode communities were studied after three months application. Nematodes were collected from soil in rhizosphere of Morning glories (Pharhiris nil) which were applied as heavy metal accumulators and were grown in the experimental pots. Both single and combined heavy metals had marked effects on the nematode abundance, life-history strategies and feeding type composition. Bacteriovores and c-p 2 group were found to be the most abundant trophic group and functional guild, respectively. Acrobeloides and Pratylenchus were the most two abundant genera, decreasing number of them was responsible for the significant difference between control and polluted treatments. Cd-5 and Cd-Hg 5+20 presented lower values of nematode diversity index (H’) and evenness index (J’) than Hg-20. The combination of Cd and Hg showed lower nematode trophic diversity (TD), in comparison with single Cd or Hg. Conversely, heavy metals addition exhibited no pronounced effect on Maturity index (MI), structural index (SI) and enrichment index (EI). Our results demonstrate that genera composition is a better indicator to short-term heavy metal effects than some common indicator indices and emphasize that deeper assemblage analyses are needed for a correct interpretation of short-term disturbance on soil nematodes.

Short-term effects of cadmium and mercury on soil nematode communities in a pot experiment

Helminthologia

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Analysis of soil nematode feeding groups and functional guilds were used as a valuable tool to detect heavy metal pollution. Effects of cadmium (Cd) at 5...

Short-term effects of cadmium and mercury on soil nematode communities in a pot experiment

Published Online: May 23, 2020

Page range: 145 - 153

Received: Sep 14, 2019

Accepted: Dec 26, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/helm-2020-0015

Keywords
Morning glory, heavy metals, nematodes, trophic group, c-p group

© 2020 Y. Lü, X. Chen, W. F. Xue, W. D. Zhang, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Short-term effects of cadmium and mercury on soil nematode communities in a pot experiment

Published Online: May 23, 2020

Page range: 145 - 153

Received: Sep 14, 2019

Accepted: Dec 26, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/helm-2020-0015

KeywordsMorning glory, heavy metals, nematodes, trophic group, c-p group

© 2020 Y. Lü, X. Chen, W. F. Xue, W. D. Zhang, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Morning glory, heavy metals, nematodes, trophic group, c-p group