Development of soil nematode communities during primary and secondary succession

Biodiversity loss is one of the biggest threats of our era. Habitats with all the unique species linked with them disappear due to the landscape changes and various mankind activities, namely obtaining of resources. Open-cast mining and intensive agriculture are an example of human activities that vastly degrades soil and diversity of its fauna. Therefore, ecosystem restoration is a way how to mitigate those losses and conserve or even bring back unique habitats. Despite the fact that most of restoration projects aim at plant communities, interest of soil fauna communities restoration increased amongst scientists lately. Nematodes serve as a very useful tool for a soil food web quality assessment. Their characteristics, such as various body length or different feeding habits makes them fit into almost all important ecological niches within the soil fauna group. This together with the fact that they are amongst first to colonize new habitats allows us to track changes in soil food web during primary or secondary succession. Moreover, using similar methodology and specific nematode indices developed over years enable comparison between different habitats and stages of succession. Restoration of soils and soil processes represent serious challenge in many restoration projects. Various restoration..