Abstract <p>For sustainable soil management, evaluating all parameters of soil fertility collectively is important. Biological organisms are very important for soil fertility. However, these parameters are not sufficiently investigated in general soil quality studies. In the present study, changes and relationships between nematode trophic groups (bacterivores, fungivores, omnivores, predators, plant parasites) and basic physical, chemical, and biological properties of soils in different land use types (particularly dry-irrigated agriculture) and depths (0–20&#xa0;cm, 20–40&#xa0;cm) were investigated. Bacterivores were found to be the nematode trophic group with statistically significant variability due to the difference between land uses (<i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). Total nematode density was higher in irrigated agriculture, and the abundance of all nematode trophic groups was approximately 2.5 times greater in surface soils (0–20&#xa0;cm) than in subsurface soils (20–40&#xa0;cm). Statistically significant positive low-level correlations were found between organic matter and bacterivores (r: 0.131; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01), and total nematode density (r: 0.106; <i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). Also, significant positive correlations were found between microbial biomass carbon and bacterivore (r: 0.164, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.01), total nematode (r: 0.158, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.05), and plant parasite (r: 0.101, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.05). As a result of this study, important relationships between soil properties and nematode trophic groups were identified, suggesting that nematode communities, particularly bacterivores, can serve as useful biological indicators for assessing soil fertility and improving the efficiency of sustainable soil management practices.</p> Graphical Abstract <p></p>