Communities of Soil Nematodes in the Subcrown Areas of Trees Introduced on the Territory of the Polar—Alpine Botanical Garden

Аннотация

We have studied communities of nematodes in the basal soil of woody plants introduced in the open areas of the Polar-Alpine Botanical Garden of the Karelian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) in Murmansk oblast. Under the conditions of introduction, we have identified nematodes belonging to 48 taxonomic categories with the maximum diversity of bacteriotrophes (56% of the total number of identified taxa) and plant parasites (21%). The tendency of reducing the number of genera in the series “deciduous breed-conifer breed-natural biocenosis” is shown; a similar pattern is shown for the group of plant parasites. We have found parasite taxa rare for the northwest of Russia. An adaptive mechanism was found in nematodes of the species Rhabditis producta Schneider, 1866, associated with delayed egg laying and their subsequent development to larvae in the body cavity of females, which is of great importance for the survival of offspring in adverse environmental conditions in the north. The study has revealed a significant correlation between the taxonomic diversity of nematodes and most of the soil properties (pH, ash content, N, and P); the relative abundance of polytrophs and nematodes associated with plants and the content of organic matter, organic carbon, as well as the C : N ratio; and the relative abundance of the group of nematode parasites of plants and the area of vegetation projective cover.