Incidence, Population Density, and Spatial Heterogeneity of Plant-Parasitic Nematodes in Corn Fields in Ohio

Soil samples were collected from 425 corn fields in 28 Ohio counties between growth stages V3 and V6 during the 2013 and 2014 growing seasons. Ten morphological groups of plant-parasitic nematodes, namely spiral, lesion, lance, dagger, stunt, pin, ring, stubby-root, cyst, and "tylenchids" (several genera morphologically similar to members of the subfamily Tylenchinae [NCBI Taxonomy] including Cephelenchus, Filenchus, Malenchus, and Tylenchus) were identified. Eight species belonging to six of these groups were characterized. Spiral, tylenchids, lesion, pin, lance, stunt, and dagger nematodes were detected in 94, 96, 80, 57, 48, 48, and 37% of the fields, respectively, whereas the stubby-root, cyst, and ring nematodes were present in fewer than 14% of the samples. Averaged across fields, the spiral, tylenchids, and pin nematodes had the highest mean population densities. For all groups, incidence and population density varied among counties, and in some cases, among soil regions and cropping practices. Both population parameters were heterogeneous at multiple spatial scales, with the lowest heterogeneity among soil regions and the highest among fields within county and soil region. Estimated variances at the soil region level were not significantly different from zero for most of the nematodes evaluated. Stunt and lance were two of the most variable groups at all tested spatial scales. In general, the population densities were significantly more heterogeneous at the field level than at the county level. Findings from this study will be useful for developing sampling protocols and establishing on-farm trials to estimate losses and evaluate nematode management strategies.