Assessment of four soil nematode communities in Hawaii by different methods

Abstract

Nematode communities are potentially excellent indicators of soil health. Assessing these nematodes communities using molecular and morphological techniques may seem straight forward. However, many challenges exist in implementing molecular techniques. First, molecular techniques employed to study nematode communities generally involve DNA extraction, PCR, cloning and molecular sequencing. Each of these steps can introduce bias into the analysis of a nematode community. Using morphology to identify and assess nematode soil health is cumbersome as well. Systematic knowledge of the nematode fauna is essential in order to assign nematodes to their appropriate classification. In new environments permanent slides and collaboration with laboratories that extensively work on nematode taxonomy for adequate identification of nematodes is essential. As a result, attempting to assess the health of soil should require multiple nematode faunal analyses over time which includes I) comparison of two methods, 2) Gap analyses and 3) extraction methods. It is believed that these experiments have provided pertinent information to help in the quest of measuring and monitoring soil health. However, there is not adequate information to confidently determine if the Manoa Falls Trail sites were "healthier" in comparison to the Whitmore site.