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Integrating spatial and temporal patterns of free-living nematodes with physical and chemical environmental traits: implications for coastal ecological monitoring

  • TRENDS IN AQUATIC ECOLOGY IV
  • Published:
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Abstract

Relating biological patterns to the physical environment is increasingly explored in current period of global biodiversity crisis and attempts to identify ecological status. Free-living marine nematodes (FMN) were proposed as ecological indicators, although often under approaches based on developing synthetic indexes of environmental quality, contextually neglecting the crucial issue of their spatial and temporal variability in abundance and diversity, and its relationship with environmental drivers. This study, carried out on the north-eastern coast of India as a region subject to various anthropogenic activities, assessed the patterns of FMN structure, richness, equitability, trophic guilds, life strategy and morphological traits at three sites, three times over 1 year, two beach levels and three sediment layers upto 15 cm deep. Nematode patterns were then related to the amount of sand, silt and clay, organic carbon, and salinity. Each FMN characteristic was largely variable in time and space, being organic carbon and salinity the environmental variables most correlated to such patterns. Monitoring designs suited to capture such variability are recommended to improve the use of FMN as bioindicators. Just relying on unidirectional data to define environmental status is questioned, while it is proposed to consider the Effect of Positional Constraints when assessing ecosystem health.

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Data availability

The dataset generated and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The study was supported by Zoological Survey of India through Junior and Senior Research Fellowship to TKD in 2011–2015. The authors are grateful to Dr. K. Venkataraman (former Director, Zoological Survey of India) for their generous support and provision of facilities to work on meiofauna. Sincere thanks to Dr. Dmitry M. Miljutin (Bioconsult Schuchardt & Scholle, Bremen, Germany) and Dr. Alberto de Jesús Navarrete (Department of Systematics and Aquatic Ecology, ECOSUR, Mexico) for unconditional help in gathering knowledge on free-living nematode taxonomy and ecology. United Engineering Enterprise (Kasba Industrial Estate, Kolkata) and National Bureau of Soil Survey & Land Use Planning, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (Sector-II, Block-DK, Salt Lake, Bidhan Nagar, Kolkata) provided support for sediment analyses.

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The funding was supported by Zoological Survey of India through Junior and Senior Research Fellowship to TKD.

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  1. Zoological Survey of India, M-Block, New Alipore, Kolkata, 700053, India

    Tridip Kumar Datta

  2. Department of Biology, CoNISMa, University of Pisa, Via Derna 1, 56126, Pisa, Italy

    Iacopo Bertocci

  3. Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn, Villa Comunale, 80121, Naples, Italy

    Iacopo Bertocci

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Datta, T.K., Bertocci, I. Integrating spatial and temporal patterns of free-living nematodes with physical and chemical environmental traits: implications for coastal ecological monitoring. Hydrobiologia 850, 1355–1391 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-022-04945-2

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