Abundance, diversity, and distribution of plant-parasitic nematodes in horticultural soils under different management systems in a tomato-producing area in Argentina

SALAS AUGUSTO; BARRERA MARCELO; ACHINELLY , MARÍA F.

NEMATOLOGY

BRILL ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS

Lugar: Leiden; Año: 2022

1388-5545

Monitoring the diversity and structure of plant-parasitic nematode (PPNs) communities together with developing appropriate control strategies can reduce the occurrence of these pathogens and other plant pests in horticultural crops. In this frame a case study in horticultural soils from the Green Belt of La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina under different management systems was realized to know the abundance, frequency, diversity, and distribution of PPNs. Soil samples were collected from three horticultural areas with different tomato crop managements: agroecological crop (AC); organic crop with Brassicaceae soil amendments (OC); intensive conventional crop treated with methyl bromide (IC). The parameters evaluated were: nematode genera richness (G); Shannon-Wiener diversity index (H´) (Hutcheson?s t-test was applied for this index); equitability index (E); abundance; and frequency of genera. ANOSIM and SIMPER statistical analyses were performed to find significant differences between the nematode assemblages from the different sites. A total of 14 genera of PPNs were identified among the three crop sites. Members of the feeding habits categories ectoparasites, semi-endoparasites, migratory endoparasites, and sedentary endoparasites were observed. Statistical analysis enabled us to characterize each site based on the composition of the nematode assemblages. Helicotylenchus, Tylenchus and Nacobbus were the most frequent and abundant genera. AC and OC showed similar values of richness and diversity; the crop treated with MeBr (IC) showed the lowest diversity of PPNs. Supplementary studies are necessary to determine if these patterns are replicated in others greenhouses of this horticultural area which may contributed to improve future management policies and  mitigate the effects of these pests.