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Granite Rock Outcrops: An Extreme Environment For Soil Nematodes?, Erin Austin, Katharine Semmens, Charles Parsons, Amy M. Treonis
Granite Rock Outcrops: An Extreme Environment For Soil Nematodes?, Erin Austin, Katharine Semmens, Charles Parsons, Amy M. Treonis
Biology Faculty Publications
We studied soil nematode communities from the surface of granite flatrock outcrops in the eastern Piedmont region of the United States. The thin soils that develop here experience high light intensity and extreme fluctuations in temperature and moisture and host unique plant communities. We collected soils from outcrop microsites in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC) in various stages of succession (Primitive, Minimal, and Mature) and compared soil properties and nematode communities to those of adjacent forest soils. Nematodes were present in most outcrop soils, with densities comparable to forest soils (P > 0.05). Nematode communities in Mature and Minimal soils …