Free-living nematode community structure and distribution within vineyard soil aggregates under conventional and organic management practices

Soil biota play a crucial role in soil ecosystem stability, promoting organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling. Compared to conventional farming, organic farming is known to improve soil properties such as aggregation. Despite the importance of soil microbial communities in soil biogeochemical processes, our knowledge of their dynamics is rudimentary, especially under different agricultural management practices. Here we studied the effects of vineyard management practices (conventional and organic) and soil aggregate fractions (micro-, meso-, and macroaggregates) on free-living soil nematodes. The abundance, diversity, and ecological indices, such as the Wasilewska index and trophic diversity, of free-living soil nematodes were determined. We found that the abundance of free-living soil nematodes was increased by organic farming. In addition, plant parasites were found to increase in macroaggregates in the organic plot, which may be attributed to the weeds present due to no-tillage and no herbicides. Nematode family network connectivity increased in complexity with increasing aggregate size, highlighting the importance of the interplay between nematodes and soil inter-aggregate pore size and connectivity.