HOW VARIABLE ARE NEMATODE COMMUNITIES RESPONDING TO SEASONAL FACTOR

Abstract

The temporal variation of nematode communities in 8 mouth stations of the Mekong River system was investigated in order to compare the change between the dry and the wet season. The nematode communities were characterized in terms of densities, diversities, maturity index, trophic structure and age structures. The results showed that there were no particular temporal trends in biotic parameters measured except for the Shannon – Wiener diversity index which shows significantly weakly differences between seasons. Our results showed that the spatial differences are larger than the temporal variation. Sediment composition remained the most important factor explaining the community patterns