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Soil microbial communities are characterized in many different ways. The activity of microbes can be measured by their respiration and carbon dioxide release. The cellular components of microbes can be extracted from soil and genetically profiled, or microbial biomass can be calculated by weighing the soil before and after fumigation.
A portable embedded system for microbial concentration measurement in liquid and semi-liquid media using impedance microbiology has been recently proposed. [ 16 ] [ 17 ] The system is composed of a thermoregulated incubation chamber where the sample under test is stored and a controller for thermoregulation and impedance measurements.
They are the most abundant microorganisms in the soil, and serve many important purposes, including nitrogen fixation. [9] Some bacteria can colonize minerals in the soil and help influence weathering and the breaking down of these minerals. The overall composition of the soil can determine the amount of bacteria growing in the soil.
Soil biology is the study of microbial and faunal activity and ecology in soil. Soil life , soil biota , soil fauna , or edaphon is a collective term that encompasses all organisms that spend a significant portion of their life cycle within a soil profile, or at the soil- litter interface.
Nitrogen is an essential element needed for the creation of biomass and is usually seen as a limiting nutrient in agricultural systems. Though abundant in the atmosphere, the atmospheric form of nitrogen cannot be utilized by plants and must be transformed into a form that can be taken up directly by the plants; this problem is solved by biological nitrogen fixers.
Progress in microbial ecology has been tied to the development of new technologies. The measurement of biogeochemical process rates in nature was driven by the availability of radioisotopes beginning in the 1950s. For example, 14 CO 2 allowed analysis of rates of photosynthesis in the ocean (ref).
Free-living microfungi often function as decomposers, and contribute to soil microbial biomass. Many microfungi in biological soil crusts have adapted to the intense light conditions by evolving the ability to produce melanin, and are called black fungi or black yeasts. Fungal hyphae can bind soil particles together.
One problem in the measurement of soil respiration in the field is that respiration of microorganisms can not be distinguished from respiration from plant roots and soil animals. This can be overcome using stable isotope techniques. Cane sugar is a C 4 – sugar which can act as an isotopic tracer.
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