Multi-correlation between nematode communities and environmental variables in mangrove-shrimp ponds, Ca Mau province, Southern Vietnam

sms in general. 
Figure 6. Single and multi-correlation between the nematode bio-indices 
and the environmental variables 
Multi-correlation between nematode communities 
25 
What variables need to be considered to 
raise biodiversity of nematode communities 
(shrimp’s food source)? 
Using the multi-correlation results from 
this study in combination with other studies 
(Table 5), high salinity could help promoting 
nematode diversities, whereas a high value of 
depth, DO, pH, and organic concentration 
(TOC, TN) could decrease the diversity. 
Although nematode diversities can be affected 
by a number of abiotic variables such as 
salinity, temperature, hydrodynamics, 
sediment grain size, oxygenation level and 
food availability (Ingels et al., 2011; Cai et al., 
2012; Ngo et al., 2013a; Zeppilli et al., 2013; 
Górska et al., 2014), salinity is the most 
important variable. Several studies showed 
that salinity is one of the most common 
ancillary measures used in coastal and marine 
ecological studies to monitor drivers of 
benthic assemblages (Alber, 2002; Ysebaert & 
Herman, 2002; Kimmel & Roman, 2004). 
Moreover, salinity gradients could be more 
important in explaining diversity across 
multiple estuarine systems (Van Diggele, 
2016). Therefore, salinity concentration 
should be considered and regularly monitored 
in CMMSFP. The optimal salinity for shrimp 
culture is about 15−25 ppt (Boyd, 1995) 
which is vital for pond dynamics, although 
shrimps can be grown in salinities varying 
from 4 ppt to 26 ppt. Likewise, in an earlier 
study, P. monodon favored salinity ranging 
from of 6.5 ppt to 25.5 ppt favored the 
growth (Das et al., 2001). 
Table 5. Single-correlation between the nematode bio-indices 
and the environmental variables form others studies 
 Dep Sal DO pH TN 
S -[1] +[2, 7] -[3] -[4] -[7] 
d -[5] +[7] N.A -[4] -[7] 
H′ -[5, 6] +[2] -[3] -[4] -[3] 
ES(50) N.A N.A -[3] N.A -[7] 
N1 -[5] +[2] -[3] -[3] -[3] 
N2 -[5] N.A -[3] -[3] -[3] 
Ninf -[5] N.A N.A -[3] -[3] 
Notes: “+”: Positive correlations; “-”: Negative correlations; N.A: Not available; [1]: Gambi et al. (2003); 
[2]: Tran et al. (2018b); [3]: Ngo et al. (2016); [4]: Ngo et al. (2013b); [5]: Tran et al. (2017a); [6]: Liu et 
al. (2015); [7]: This contribution. 
CONCLUSION 
This study found significant multi-
interaction between nematode communities’ 
bioindices with environmental variables in the 
CMMSFPs. The biodiversity of nematode 
communities have been considered to be high 
which provided more natural food for 
shrimps. Furthermore, the multi-correlation 
between the nematode bio-indices and the 
environmental variables produced completely 
different results from those of single-
correlation analyses. Although the present 
study has been able to show the advantage of 
the multi-correlation, there are still some 
points we would like to address in future 
work, especially the complex interactions 
between the environmental variables and 
nematode communities. 
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