Nematode assemblages in a nature reserve with historical pollution

Nematodes, and especially nematode communities, have significant potential as bio-indicators. The present study aimed to assess thee nematode community structure of several sites with different historical pollution Long-term polluted municipal waste-, tar- and sludge- sites were compared with less disturbed annex sites At each site heavy metal and PAHs concentrations were measured together with soil texture classes. pH and total organic matter Identification of three hundred nematodes at each location resulted in the discrimination of 63 genera from 32 different families of which the Cephalobidae. Belonolaimidae, Tylenchidae, Hoplolaimidae, Belonolaimidae and Plectidae were the most abundant families The sampling sites harbour significantly different nematode communities and significant differences of life-strategy-related parameters (cp-groups, MI Indexes) were observed. The significant augmentation of the proportion of the cp 2 nematodes in historically-polluted sites was especially informative. Omitting the cp 1 group from the MI (=MI2-5) better reflects putative historical pollution-induced community changes However, the current study did not reveal significant relationships between historical pollution and the feeding type composition, or the Shannon-Wiener diversity The observed results are critically assessed in the light of possible flaws such as sampling and analyzing limitations.