In order to elucidate the distribution of soil nematodes in coastal wetlands and the effect of different distance from the sea line on soil nematode communities, we investigated the community structure of soil nematodes in one wetland perpendicularly oriented from Bohai sea coastline. In June 2006, soil samples were collected from the Yellow River Delta wetlands, in Dongying city of Shandong Province, China. Soil nematode communities were analyzed at the depths of 0-10 and 10-20 cm. The results showed that plant parasite nematodes were the most abundant trophic groups in both depths and at four sites. The average relative abundance was 91.33% of the nematode community. Several ecological indices which reflected soil nematode community structure, diversity, maturity and plant parasitism were compared in these four sites. The results indicated that the maturity index (MI) and plant parasitism index (PPI) were more sensitive than the other indices for assessing the response of soil nematode communities to soil of coastal wetland.

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