Above-ground removal of plant functional groups on soil nematode communities in alpine meadows on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

Soil nematodes play an important role in indicating the structure and function of alpine meadow ecosystems, yet the impact of plant functional group loss on soil nematode communities remains unclear. In this study, five treatments involving the removal of above-ground plant functional groups were established in an alpine meadow ecosystem of the eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, including a control (CK), graminoids, legumes, forbs, and remove all. The aim was to explore the impact of plant functional group loss on soil nematode communities. Results showed that: (1) Above-ground removal of plant functional groups had no significant effect on plant root biomass and soil nematode total density. (2) Above-ground removal of plant functional groups had a significant effect on the relative abundance of nematode trophic taxa. Under legume treatment, the relative abundance of bacterial feeder nematodes was the highest, while that of plant parasite nematodes was the lowest; under forbs treatment, the relative abundance of plant parasite nematodes was the highest, while that of bacterial feeder nematodes was the lowest. (3) Nonmetric multidimensional-scaling analysis (NMDS) showed that the removal of different plant functional groups led to differences in soil nematode taxa, with significant impact on soil nematode community structure.