Soil nematode communities reveal the benefits of protected area in the Himalayas: A comparison of Dachigam National Park and Pir-Panjal Mountain range

Protected areas are widely recognized for conserving aboveground biodiversity; however, their effectiveness in safeguarding soil biota remains insufficiently explored. Here we studied soil nematode communities in Dachigam National Park (protected) and the Pir Panjal Mountain Range (unprotected) in the western Himalayas to assess the influence of conservation status on belowground biodiversity. A total of 91 nematode genera were identified, with higher richness in the protected area (87 genera, including 24 unique) than in the unprotected region (67 genera, 4 unique). Taxonomic diversity was significantly higher in the protected area. Trophic analyses revealed that omnivores were more abundant in the protected ecosystem, whereas bacterivores dominated the unprotected region. Trait-based metrics indicated significantly greater functional richness, evenness, dispersion, and community-weighted body mass in protected soils. Principal component analysis (PCA) and non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) confirmed distinct community composition between the two regions, while redundancy analysis (RDA) identified soil moisture, organic carbon, and potassium as key environmental drivers. Overall, our results show that protected areas conserve soil nematode diversity and support resilient, functionally rich communities These findings highlight the need to explicitly integrate belowground biota into conservation frameworks and reinforce the role of protected landscapes in sustaining soil biodiversity under accelerating environmental changes in the Himalayas.