Plant-parasitic Nematode Distributions in an Alfalfa Field

A 7-ha alfalfa field (Medicago saliva L. cv Mesa Sirsa) was sampled systematically on a 6 x 6-m grid by removing individual cores (2.54 cm diam) to a depth of 45 cm from each of the 1,936 grid intersections. The soil was mainly coarse-textured with a fine-textured streak running centrally, north to south. Nematodes were extracted by a semiautomatic elutriator and sugar flotation-sieving technique. Five plant-parasitic species were consistently present: Meloidogyne arenaria, Pratylenchus minyus, Merlinius brevidens, Helicotylenchus digonicus, and Paratrichodorus minor. All species had a highly skewed nonnormal frequency distribution that departed significantly from randontness. Goodness-of-fit tests on the distribution of five populations in the entire field showed that three (Meloidogyne, Merlinius, and Helicotylenchus) were described by a negative binomial. When the samples were categorized by soil texture (coarse vs. fine-textured), all populations in the fine-textured areas, and three populations (Meloidogyne, Pratylenchus, and Merlinius) in the coarse areas, fitted a negative binomial distribution. Nearly all populations titted a negative binomial when the frequency distributions from randomly located one-meter-square areas were examined for each species.