The maturity index: an ecological measure of environmental disturbance based on nematode species composition

Abstract

Nematode assemblages constitute a potential instrument for assessing the quality of submersed, temporarily submersed, and terrestrial soils and for the development of an ecological typology and biomonitoring system. Interpretation of physical or pollution-induced disturbances has hitherto mainly been based on changes in diversity, dominance patterns or percentage of dorylaimids (Adenophorea). The maturity index, based on the nematode fauna, is proposed as a gauge of the condition of the soil ecosystem. Values on a coloniser/persister scale are given for nematodes that occur in The Netherlands. The possibilities of the use of this index are demonstrated by a retrospective interpretation of some literature data. The use of nematodes in environmental studies is discussed.

Soil microarthropod communities from Mediterranean forest ecosystems in Central Italy under different disturbances

“…Soilquality monitoring is often inaccessible to land managers because the measurement systems are too complex, too expensive or both (Herrick 2000), despite its utility as an indicator of environmentally friendly use of natural resources. This study has contributed to the development of efficient and low-cost biological indices of soil quality (Bongers 1990(Bongers , 1999Cortet et al 2000;van Straalen 1998van Straalen , 2004 that are based on microarthropod communities.…”

Functional diversity of nematode communities in the southwestern North Sea

“…He suggested that this morphotype represents adaptations to life in oxygen poor and sulphide rich sediments which is in contrast to previous assumptions that the body length and shape reflect adaptations exclusively to the physical constraints of interstitial space. Bongers (1990) developed a grouping of nematode genera according to their life history strategies to assess the condition of terrestrial and freshwater habitats. This classification, relating the more r-selected 'colonisers' to the more K-selected 'persisters' has been applied less frequently to marine nematodes (Bongers et al, 1991;Fraschetti et al, 2006), partly due to a lack of empirical 5 support for the classification of some marine genera and the absence or rarity of extreme colonisers and persisters in most marine habitats.…”

“…Nematodes were allocated to life history groups according to Bongers (1990) and Bongers et al (1991Bongers et al ( , 1995 where genera are classified on a five-point scale from colonisers (inter alia short life-cycle, high reproduction rates, high colonisation ability, tolerant to various types of disturbance) to persisters (inter alia long life-cycles, low colonisation ability, few offspring, sensitive to disturbance). In contrast to terrestrial environments, extreme colonisers (coloniser-persister score of 1) and persisters (coloniser-persister score of 5) are virtually absent in marine systems.…”

Changes of nematode community under monoculture wheat and wheat/jujube intercropping system in Xinjiang, Northwest China

“…2) The classifi cation of trophic groups based on known feeding habits or stoma and esophageal morphology was assigned to: a) Bacterial feeders (BF), b) Fungal feeders (FF), c) Plant feeders (PF), and d) Omnivores-predators (Bongers, 1990;Yeates et al, 1993). 3) The classifi cation of nematode colonizer-persister (cp) values based on life strategies according to Bongers (Bongers, 1990;Bongers & Bongers, 1998;Bongers, 1999). 4) Diversity index: a) Shannon-Weaver index (H'): PPI =∑υi fi ', where vi is the c-p value for the plant-parasitic nematodes to the i-th nematode genus and fi is the proportion of genus in the plant-parasitic nematode community (Bongers 1990, Bongers et al 1997, b) Maturity index (MI): MI = ∑υi fi , where vi is the c-p value for free-living nematodes to the i-th nematode genus and fi ' is the proportion of the genus in the free-living nematode community (Bongers, 1990;Bongers, 1999), (Bongers et al 1997), d) ∑MI = ∑υi Pi, modifi ed maturity index, where vi is the c-p value for free-living and plant parasitic nematodes to the i-th nematode genus and pi is the proportion of the genus in the whole nematode community (Yeates, 1994).…”

“…4) Diversity index: a) Shannon-Weaver index (H'): PPI =∑υi fi ', where vi is the c-p value for the plant-parasitic nematodes to the i-th nematode genus and fi is the proportion of genus in the plant-parasitic nematode community (Bongers 1990, Bongers et al 1997, b) Maturity index (MI): MI = ∑υi fi , where vi is the c-p value for free-living nematodes to the i-th nematode genus and fi ' is the proportion of the genus in the free-living nematode community (Bongers, 1990;Bongers, 1999), (Bongers et al 1997), d) ∑MI = ∑υi Pi, modifi ed maturity index, where vi is the c-p value for free-living and plant parasitic nematodes to the i-th nematode genus and pi is the proportion of the genus in the whole nematode community (Yeates, 1994). All the data were analyzed through ANOVA by IBM SPSS Statistic v18.0 software package.…”