The forest canopy is inhabited by a variety of invertebrates, some of which are traditionally considered to be soil dwellers. These animals, along with springtails and oribatid mites, also include nematodes. A team of scientists from Syktyvkar, Tyumen, Tartu, Petrozavodsk, Ho Chi Minh City, Moscow and Kortrekos village in the Komi Republic investigated the diversity of non-parasitic nematodes in tree crowns using DNA metabarcoding. Samples were collected from different tree species in taiga, broadleaf and tropical monsoon forests, at altitudes ranging from 0.5 to 20 meters.
Local (within one sample) diversity of nematodes in crowns is lower than in the soil, but the species composition varies greatly in different microhabitats. Due to this, the overall diversity of nematodes is comparable in the soil and forest canopy.
“Contrary to expectations, the diversity of nematodes in the tree layer does not increase from high to low latitudes, as is observed in the soil. The taxonomic similarity between nematode communities in the soil and in the crowns is small (less than 30%). Therefore, woody habitats make a significant contribution to the overall diversity of nematodes in forest ecosystems,” said A.V. Tiunov, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Deputy Director for Science at the IEE RAS.
The article was published in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation: Kudrin A.A., Salavatulin V.M., Mikryukov V.V., Sushchuk A.A., Kudrina S.E., Kondakova T.N., Trung Duc Nguyen, Tiunov A.V. (2024) Metabarcoding reveals that arboreal habitats contribute significantly to nematode diversity in different forest ecosystems. Biodiversity and Conservation, 33: 4371–4386. DOI: 10.1007/s10531-024-02960-4.