Assessing Nematode Diversity in Decaying Wood: Investigating Community Composition and Influencing Factors Across Different Managed Forests through Metabarcoding

Abstract

Nematodes, with a number of species estimated to be over a million, are an exceptionally diverse and ubiquitous group of Metazoan. Despite their diversity and abundance, they remain among the least studied groups of organisms. Nematodes are active members of various food webs, as the different species of nematodes feed on anything from plants to other nematodes, and several species parasite on different animals. This study aimed to investigate the diversity of nematode communities in decaying wood across forests of different management levels. Using metabarcoding and nematode-specific primers, the research aim was to analyse how location, epiphyte cover and bark cover could be altering and influencing the nematode communities in the different forest. Next-generation sequencing has been proven to be an effective method in investigating nematodes in comparison to classical methods, but the study did not deliver any significant results. Factors, such as similarity in forest composition, overlooked variables, a relatively small sample size and an abundance of non-targeted species within the samples may have contributed to the results. The study calls attention to the complex nematode community dynamics, as well as limitations of methodologies regarding capturing the full, yet targeted range of biodiversity. The results that were provided in this study simply accentuate the cruciality for future research and studies to incorporate a wider range of variables in ecosystems of the forests to gain a deeper understanding of factors that may be influencing nematode community structures. This work can be considered an added foundation for more targeted research with the similar aim, as well as contributing research to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of the complexities within forest ecosystems.