Responses of nematode communities to different land uses in an aquic brown soil

An analysis of the seasonal and vertical distri-bution of soil nematode communities under three con-trasting land uses, i.e., cropland, abandoned cropland and woodland was conducted in an aquic brown soil. The results showed that different land-use types affected the spatiotemporal distribution of soil nematodes and their dominant genera, and different dominant genera showed different responses to land use. In the abandoned cropland and woodland, most dominant genera were pre-sent in the 0-20 cm layers and Chiloplacus was mainly distributed in the 5-30 cm layers, while in the cropland, Pratylenchus exhibited an even distribution from the 0-5 cm to the 40-50 cm depth. Soil environmental para-meters under different land use could influence soil nema-todes; soil porosity, total organic C, total N and the C/N ratio could positively influence the abundance of some dominant genera. Faunal profiles revealed that envir-onmental stability and the homeostasis in the abandoned cropland and woodland lead to higher levels of commun-ity structure, and the soil food web tends to succeed to maturity. Nematode faunal analyses are a useful indicator for interpreting the stress and/or nutrient conditions under different land uses.