Nematodes are suitable organisms to detect deleterious anthropogenic effects on soil biodiversity and ecosystems services: e.g. for release attendant GMO-biomonitoring, prospective risk assessment for GVO regulation, soil monitoring according to EU soil framework directive (EU SFD), and other nature conservation purposes (Ruf et al. 2013; VDI-Guideline: VDI 4331 part 1). For soil, nematode-specific indices have been developed, that are able to indicate anthropogenic stress (Maturity Index: Bongers et al. 1990, Bongers and Ferris 1999; Channel Index: Ferris et al. 1999). Ecossa already successfully used nematodes as bioindicators for the release attendant risk assessment of Bt-maize (Höss et al. 2011).

Ecossa provides: 

• Analysis of nematode communities in soils (fields, forrest, gras land) for the purpose of quality assessment (nematode extration; taxonomic identification of nematodes at the genus level)
• Calculation of relevant ecological indices: Maturity Index (MI; MI2-5); Structure Index; Enrichment Index; Channel Index
• Multivariate analysis of genus composition (RDA; CCA)