Comparative Study of Community Analysis of Plant Parasitic and Free-living Nemic Fauna around Root Zones of Mango (Mangifera indica) Plant in Hapur Region

Nematodes are tiny rounded body, unsegmented worms. They occupy any niche of the environment, like soil, freshwater, and terrestrial (free-living and parasitic). They constitute a large group of all metazoans in the world: Plant-parasitic and free-living nematodes are well-recognized factors in soil productivity. Phytonematodes feed upon the cell sap of plants with the help of stylet. It causes many abnormalities in plants like gall formation on roots, stunting growth, wilting of plants, and serious damage to crop yield. In the present study, soil samples were collected from (0-30 cm) vertical depth and (30-60 cm) horizontal depth from around the root of the mango plant in the Hapur region from July to November. Nematodes samples were extracted by decanting and sieving Techniques (Cobb1918) were applied. Under the microscope examination nematodes were identified as free-living with minimum percentages of 14.2% and8.88% at both vertical and horizontal depth while plant parasitic nematodes were recorded as a higher percentage(53.90% vertical depth)and(64.91% horizontal depth) away from the host plant. This was variation in communities of plant nematodes at both depths due to seasonal changes, various other edaphic factors such as PH, temperature, moisture emergence of secondary rootlets, and availability on set of monsoon season and unavailability of various food resources.