Impact of Soil Disturbances on Soil Nematode Communities

Agricultural practices significantly affect the soil ecosystem, influencing its physical and biological properties. Intensive agricultural cultivation reduces the amount of organic matter, affects the structure and porosity of soil, and alters the water and temperature regimen. Consequently, soil becomes more prone to erosion, resulting in changes in the composition of microbial and invertebrate communities. Nematodes are one of the most abundant soil animals, colonizing all soil habitats and including many species with different dimension and life strategies. The use of nematodes for studying soil characteristics and changes is based on the variations in their abundance, diversity, dominant taxa, trophic groups, and specific ecological and functional indices. Nematode taxa or trophic groups are susceptible to changes in the soil environment. If natural habitats change, nematode populations can grow intensively or markedly decrease. This sensitivity of soil nematodes is used as a bioindicator for the ecological state as well as the quality, stability, or changes of the soil environment. Agricultural soils under intensive agrarian production lost their natural ability to recover, and pests such as parasitic nematodes may be favored by intensive croppings, becoming more abundant and dangerous for plant production. Maintaining optimal soil quality and health plays a crucial role in reducing the number of plant-parasitic nematodes to an acceptable level for healthy human food and livestock fodder. In this chapter, we summarize the evaluation of soil quality based on nematode communities, comparing the influence of selected soil properties (soil moisture content, acidity, organic-matter content) and agricultural practices (management, fertilization, and use of selected biological agents) on nematode communities.