Distribution of selected plant parasitic nematodes relative to vegetation and edaphic factors

The occurrence of selected plant-parasitic nematodes in the hemlock-hardwood-white pine, boreal forest, tundra, and oak-hickory associations in some northern states was compared. Helicotylenchus platyurus and Xiphinema americanum were not found in the boreal forest and tundra, and occurred infrequently in the hemlock-hardwood-white pine areas. They were found frequently, however, in the oak-hickory forest of Iowa. It is questioned that vegetational differences among the areas account directly for the major differences in nematode occurrence. Presence and absence of nematodes and their numbers in the oak-hickory association were clustered by similarity coefficients by sites and correlated with soil pH, percentage organic matter, percentage sand-silt-clay, and field capacity. Of the soil factors measured, pH gave the strongest correlations with nematode numbers. Xiphinema chambersi was found only in soils with a pH between 4.5 and 6.4 while the largest numbers of H. platyurus, H. pseudorobustus, and X. americanum occurred in soil above pH 6.0.