Spatial structure and soil properties shape local community structure of plant-parasitic nematodes in cultivated olive trees in southern Spain

摘要

Numerous studies have documented the distribution of plant and animal communities with respect to spatial structure; however, relatively little is known about the involvement of spatial structures in the diversity of soil organisms such as plant-parasitic nematodes (PPN). Host plants such as olive trees are of particular interest because they host a large number of PPN and have a high economic and cultural importance. In this study, we investigated how different aspects of the environment (i.e. the factors soil, above-ground environment, and agricultural management) and spatial structure shaped the variation of species composition (expressed as beta diversity) and species richness of plant-parasitic nematodes infesting the soil rhizosphere in 376 commercial olive orchards in the south of Spain. We used variation partitioning to assess the relative importance of the unique and shared contributions of the factors describing the environment and spatial structure. To identify sites and species of particular interest, we partitioned beta diversity into local and species contributions.