Soil Chemical Properties Barely Perturb the Abundance of Entomopathogenic : A Case Study Using a Generalized Linear Mixed Model for Microbial Pathogen Occurrence Count Data.

exhibits insect pathogenicity-however, generalized concerns of releasing phytopathogens within agroecosystems marred its entomopathogenicity-related investigations. In a previous study, soils were sampled from Douro vineyards and adjacent hedgerows. In this study, 80 of those soils were analyzed for their chemical properties and were subsequently co-related with the abundance of entomopathogenic , after insect baiting of soils with and larvae. The soil chemical properties studied were organic matter content; total organic carbon; total nitrogen; available potassium; available phosphorus; exchangeable cations, such as K⁺, Na⁺, Ca, and Mg; pH; total acidity; degree of base saturation; and effective cation exchange capacity. Entomopathogenic was found in 48 soils, i.e., 60% ± 5.47%, of the total soil samples. Out of the 1280 insect larvae used, 93, i.e., 7.26% ± 0.72%, were found dead by entomopathogenic . Stepwise deletion of non-significant variables using a generalized linear model was followed by a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM). A higher C:N (logarithmized) ( < 0.001) and lower exchangeable K⁺ (logarithmized) ( = 0.008) were found significant for higher fungal abundance. Overall, this study suggests that entomopathogenic is robust with regard to agricultural changes, and GLMM is a useful statistical tool for count data in ecology.