Abstract
There is a current need to identify European biological indicators of biodiversity and
ecosystem function that can be used for soil monitoring, in order to aid policy making. Europe,
however, is subdivided into different bio-geographical (climate) zones, containing different soils and
varying management practices. This work (as part of the EcoFINDERS project) set out to determine
the range of variation in nematode community structure as a potential indicator across European biogeographical
zones, taking into account land use and soil characteristics. Nematodes have been
suggested as biological indicators for the monitoring of soil quality due to their involvement in the
delivery of functions such as carbon sequestration and recycling of nutrients as well as the provision of
habitat for biodiversity. Using a molecular (directed-T-RFLP) approach for rapid nematode
community structure assessment and a traditional morphological assessment at a feeding group level,
we determined that nematode communities differ between bio-geographical zones and between
different land uses within bio-geographical zones. Therefore, at the very large or trans-national level,
the presence of any differing bio-geographical zones within the monitored area should be taken into
account when sampling and analysing data. Care should be taken when making comparisons across
different bio-geographical zones.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 78-85 |
Journal | Applied Soil Ecology |
Volume | 97 |
Early online date | 20 Oct 2015 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Print publication - Jan 2016 |
Bibliographical note
1023321Keywords
- Large scale sampling campaign
- Nematode communities
- Nematodes
- T_RFLP