Assessing the impact of cultivation and plant domestication of highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum) on soil properties and associated plant-parasitic nematode communities

We investigated the interactive effects of plant domestication and perennial cultivation on diversity and richness of plant-parasitic nematode (PPN) communities associated with highbush blueberry (Vaccinium corymbosum). Rhizospheric soil of V. corymbosum plants was sampled in coupled wild and cultivated sites within the Pinelands National Reserve. Although PPN diversity was higher in cultivated plant soil samples, richness was higher in wild plant soil samples. The most important soil properties, iron and calcium, were associated with cultivated soil and were the best predictors of genera abundance patterns. Nematodes in the genus Criconemoides were 187× more abundant in wild sites than cultivated and thus, were significant indicators of wild sites. In this study cultivation of V. corymbosum appears to benefit the PPN community but alters the community composition considerably.