Did you know that one of the oldest life forms on earth can be found in your backyard? Despite being only 1/12500 mm wide and 1/500 mm long, these worm-like animals play an important role in almost every ecosystem.
Soil nematodes are grouped according to what they eat. They can feed on bacteria, fungi, plants and more. While most nematodes are beneficial to the soil, nematodes that eat plants are a concern for farmers around the world. These nematodes are called plant parasitic nematodes.
Plant parasitic nematodes are unwanted guests in agricultural soils. They attack plants from their roots and use the plant as a food source to support their own reproduction and growth. Nematodes steal the resources plants use to grow and reproduce, causing the plant to turn yellow, stunted, wilted and yield reduced.
Understanding the movement of nematodes in soil is important to helping farmers protect their crops. How fast do they move? How far can they go? How does soil moisture affect nematodes' attacks? The answers to these questions can help prevent crop damage and losses.
Sebastián González Bernal, a researcher at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso in Chile, is working on a highly aggressive plant parasitic nematode, a type of nematode called Meloidogyne ethiopica. Bernal's team studied the velocity of Meloidogyne etiopica in soils with varying moisture content.
The researchers set up an experiment with tomato plants. Plant parasitic nematodes were located in soil at different soil moisture levels and at different distances from plant roots. The researchers then followed a microscopic race to see how long it would take for the nematodes to reach the roots of the tomato plant.
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The nematodes were given 26 days to reach the finish line. “If we can know the speed of nematodes, we can control the damage done to plants by managing the frequency of irrigation applied,” says González Bernal. It was observed in the experiment that nematodes in the driest soil were slowest, moving little or no movement at all. The knowledge that nematodes do not move quickly in poorly moist soils becomes useful information for farmers. According to González Bernal, damage to plants by nematodes can be controlled by properly managing the frequency of irrigation.
Most of the nematodes did not move at all or moved so slowly that the researchers were unable to detect their speed. The slow movement of nematodes is good news, according to González Bernal. So this is; meaning they will not be infected unless the roots are close to the nematode.
Excited about this research and its significance for agriculture, González Bernal said by examining the basic biological behavior of nematodes, they found a possible solution for farmers that benefits plants and their root systems.