| Soil polution is widespread in the Netherlands and about 110.000 seriously polluted sites have been identified. Remediation of these sites is invariably costly and therefore the effectiveness of measures to improve soil health should be slosely monitored. Contrary to chemical and physical monitoring, a proper biological indicator system reflects the overall condition of a soil and is a crucial tool for soil helath assessment. Analysis of indigenous soil organisms is to be preferred since it provides retrospective insight in both long and short-term effects of soil pollution. A practical indigenous bio-indicator system should be ecologically relevant, easy to handle, time- and cost efficient, and give unequivocal results. Unfortunately, no such a system is available yet. Nematodes have a high potential as a bio-indicator. They are among the most abundant multicellular soil organisms and even in heavily polluted soils they are present in large numbers. The phylum Nematode includes many species and is trophically heterogeneous. The Dutch nematode fauna is the best-described world-wide and has been divided in groups based on ecological characteristics. the Maturity Index (MI) value of a soil smple relfects the distribution of the nematodes over these groups and is generally accepted to be a reliable bio-indicator system for soil helath. However., MI-based soil health monitoring in its present shape is laborious and too knowledge intensive. |
