Exploratory study to identify factors affecting the presence of genus Steinernema entomopathogenic nematodes in maize fields in South-West France
Abstract
Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are soil-dwelling parasites with a large range of insect hosts. They are valuable components of biological control products against insect pests (in greenhouses, for example) but their large-scale use in field crops is often limited by prohibitive costs, poor persistence, and low efficacy in non-native soils. The use of EPNs in conservation biological control — the use of different agricultural practices to promote the presence of native EPNs in field soils — has recently been proposed. Expanding our previous research mapping the occurrence of Steinernema spp. in maize fields in South-West France, this study explores different methodological approaches for investigating the biotic and abiotic factors associated with Steinernema presence, including soil properties, agricultural practices, and soil nematofauna characteristics. We hypothesised that Steinernema spp. occurrence is primarily driven by soil abiotic properties, agricultural management practices affecting habitat disturbance, and soil nematofauna characteristics, and is further influenced by plant diversity through crop rotations and cover crops. We performed univariate (Spearman’s correlation analysis and Chi 2 tests) and multivariate (ANOVA) analyses on 46 explanatory variables obtained from 41 maize plots. We also tested a generalized linear model (GLM). For this last approach, given the large number of explanatory variables relative to the number of plots, we conducted a preliminary selection procedure and reduced the number of variables to four: mean weight diameter (MWD), CaO content, main crop alternation and the diversity of plant species used as cover crops. The various approaches converged to identify maize monoculture over five years as the strongest potential explanatory variable for the presence of Steinernema. These results suggest that, in the maize fields of South-West France, EPNs require a certain stability of the vegetation covering agricultural soils. These findings require confirmation in future studies with additional datasets obtained in other agronomic and pedoclimatic contexts
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BibTeX
@article{depuydt2026exploratory,
title = {{Exploratory study to identify factors affecting the presence of genus Steinernema entomopathogenic nematodes in maize fields in South-West France}},
author = {Elisabeth Depuydt and Cécile Villenave and Bénédicte Fontez and Camille Chauvin and Cabre Lisa and Nguema-Ona Eric and Sophie Gaudriault and Jean-Claude Ogier},
journal = {Biological Control},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.1016/j.biocontrol.2026.106143},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05734157v1},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Exploratory study to identify factors affecting the presence of genus Steinernema entomopathogenic nematodes in maize fields in South-West France
AU - Elisabeth Depuydt
AU - Cécile Villenave
AU - Bénédicte Fontez
AU - Camille Chauvin
AU - Cabre Lisa
AU - Nguema-Ona Eric
AU - Sophie Gaudriault
AU - Jean-Claude Ogier
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/01
JO - Biological Control
DO - 10.1016/j.biocontrol.2026.106143
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05734157v1
AB - Entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs) are soil-dwelling parasites with a large range of insect hosts. They are valuable components of biological control products against insect pests (in greenhouses, for example) but their large-scale use in field crops is often limited by prohibitive costs, poor persistence, and low efficacy in non-native soils. The use of EPNs in conservation biological control — the use of different agricultural practices to promote the presence of native EPNs in field soils — has recently been proposed. Expanding our previous research mapping the occurrence of Steinernema spp. in maize fields in South-West France, this study explores different methodological approaches for investigating the biotic and abiotic factors associated with Steinernema presence, including soil properties, agricultural practices, and soil nematofauna characteristics. We hypothesised that Steinernema spp. occurrence is primarily driven by soil abiotic properties, agricultural management practices affecting habitat disturbance, and soil nematofauna characteristics, and is further influenced by plant diversity through crop rotations and cover crops. We performed univariate (Spearman’s correlation analysis and Chi 2 tests) and multivariate (ANOVA) analyses on 46 explanatory variables obtained from 41 maize plots. We also tested a generalized linear model (GLM). For this last approach, given the large number of explanatory variables relative to the number of plots, we conducted a preliminary selection procedure and reduced the number of variables to four: mean weight diameter (MWD), CaO content, main crop alternation and the diversity of plant species used as cover crops. The various approaches converged to identify maize monoculture over five years as the strongest potential explanatory variable for the presence of Steinernema. These results suggest that, in the maize fields of South-West France, EPNs require a certain stability of the vegetation covering agricultural soils. These findings require confirmation in future studies with additional datasets obtained in other agronomic and pedoclimatic contexts
SN - 1049-9644
SN - 1090-2112
ER -