Nematoda functional ecology
The maturity index calculated from classified Nematoda genera
showed no difference between High OC and Low OC stations (1.9 ± 0.1
maturity index for all samples, One-Way ANOVA test, Supplementary Data
6). Considering that values closer to one indicate habitat colonizers
(and values closer to five indicate habitat persisters) the nematode
communities in this study are considered colonizers. Looking closer at
the classified feeding type of the nematodes the Genera classified as
non-selective deposit feeders (1B, following the classification systems
by Wieser (1953)) had a higher number of reads in the High OC stations
when compared to Low OC (log2 fold change 1.79, DESeq2 analysis, false
discovery rate (FDR ) = 0.0000000000018; Figure 6). In contrast,
the Low OC stations had more genera classified as selective deposit
feeders (1A, log2 fold change 1.62) and predator/omnivores (2B, log2
fold change 1.40) (FDR = 0.000012 and FDR = 0.010,
respectively; Figure 6). A full list of all maturity index and feeding
type classifications and their relative abundance per Nematodagenera is available in Supplementary Data 6.