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The CCA analysis for Tso Moriri shows that the first ordination axis is most related to phosphorus, which decreases with increasing elevation (Fig 2B). The lower elevation plots with the higher phosphorus content are associated with lower diversity, higher proportion of fungivores and species such as Stegelletina devimucronata, Acrobeloides tricornis and Paraphelenchus pseudoparietinus. The higher elevation plots with lower phosphorus content are associated with taxa such as Adineta vaga and Rhabdolaimus terrestris. The second axis is most related to total nitrogen and organic matter, with the highest values at mid elevations, which host higher diversity, total vegetation cover, higher proportion of predators and root fungal feeders and taxa such as Filenchus butteus, F. quartus and Aphelenchoides spp.
Metazoan soil microfauna exhibited various feeding strategies. The two regions substantially differed in the proportions of trophic groups in nematode assemblages. In Tso Moriri, bacterivores represented almost 60% of all nematodes, fungivores 35%, omnivores 3% and root-fungal feeders 1%. For Zanskar the respective proportions were 21%, 13%, 9% and 56%. The high proportion of microbivores in Tso Moriri reflects high population densities of bacterivorous Panagrolaimus cf. rigidus and of fungivorous Aphelenchoides sp.4. On the other hand, root-fungal feeding Filenchus quartus occurred in all Zanskar samples except one. In Tso Moriri, root-fungal feeding Filenchus occurred only in three of the fifteen samples. Plant parasites of the order Tylenchida were absent from all sites surveyed and predacious Paravulvus occurred very rarely at Tso Moriri only ( 2ff7e9595c
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