干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

We studied the distribution and abundance of nematodes in one of the most extreme terrestrial environments in the world, at Machu Picchu, King George Island, off the coast of Admiralty Bay, Antarctica. We can report that the nematode community structure under the two most common plant covers was composed of three to four species. These species were found to belong functionally to microbial and omnivore/predator feeding types. Abundances of each of the nematode species were found to be negatively correlated to soil water content, generally decreasing their abundance with increasing soil water content. The results of this study demonstrate the importance of moisture availability to the nematode community and its species composition in this Antarctic soil ecosystem.