Ecology of Freshwater Nematodes

Download or read book Ecology of Freshwater Nematodes written by Walter Traunspurger and published by CABI. This book was released on 2021-07-16 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nematodes are incontestably the most numerous and the most diverse metazoans in freshwater habitats, and these properties bestow exceptional significance to their role in the environment. An array of functional roles has been attributed to them: they are grazers on bacteria and primary producers, regulators of decomposition of plant material, predators, prey for other animals, and closely associated symbionts of bacteria and other organisms. Freshwater nematodes are central in the context of environmental monitoring, pollution assessments, global warming and food webs, and this is increasingly being recognized. Moreover, the short generation time (a few days to months) of many species makes nematodes ideal for laboratory studies. This book offers guidelines for studying the ecology of free-living nematodes, including detailed protocols and case studies.