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ProEnvironment
ProEnvironment 1 (2008) 44- 49

Review

Considerations concerning the role and functions of

soil biodiversity in ecosystems
ANDOR M.*, A. MAXIM
University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Cluj Napoca, Faculty of Agriculture, Mntur 3 5,
400372 Cluj Napoca, Romania
Received 10 April 2008; received in revised form 11 May 2008; accepted 29 May 2008
Available online 1 November 2008

Abstract
By the services which are offered to ecosystems, soil biodiversity plays a crucial role in assurance of their
functions. Long time researches are necesary for a well understanding of soil biodiversity functions in natural
ecosystems and also agroecosystems. The present paper discusses some aspects regarding difficulties of studying
soil biodiversity. Practical and also theoretical aspects concerning correct understanding of soil biodiversity
functions are presented.
Keywords: biodiversity, soil, ecosystem, functions, agriculture

1.Introduction
Soil is the central part of terrestrial
ecosystems which has an direct involvement in
the processes that ensure the functionality of
terrestrial ecosystems: primary and secondary
production, energy flow, water and nutrient
cycle, trophic structure, self-regulation etc. Soil
is also the habitat of many prokaryotes and
eukaryotes organisms which are, as Ritz et al.
(2003) considered, the biological engine of the
Earth [15]. This is probably best check, in
agricultural ecosystems, whose production is
directly connected with the biotic part of the soil.
* Corresponding author.
Tel.: 0040 264 596384; Fax: 0040 264 593792
e-mail: msandor@usamvcluj.ro

Biodiversity, a term coined by entomologist

E. O. Wilson (1992), is defined most often as
totality of life-forms on Earth [20]. The three
levels at which biodiversity has been identified
are genetic diversity, species diversity and
definition, a whole range of other terms and
approaches ecosystem diversity. Starting from
this general have been used in the attempt to a
better understanding of the concept. This creates
inconvenieneces and confusions regarding the
right understanding of the biodiversity concept
and the terms asociated with it.
Soil biodiversity is a part of global
biodiversity most of the invertebrates,
mushrooms and bacteria described up to now
beeing represented into the soil. In turn, plants
by their radicular system are in direct contact
with the soil and they are part of the soil
community. The main groups of organisms

SANDOR M. et al./ProEnvironment 1 (2008) 44 49

that live in the soil, with the number of species

described up to now, as well as the estimated
number of species are presented in table 1. A
closer look at this table reveals that a great
number of species have not been identified until
now and, more than this, the role that they play
in the ecosystem is unknown. A possible
explanation for this may rest in the lack of

appropriate sampling techniques, appropriate

separation and the lack of identification
keys.
Recent studies [1, 12], put accent on the fact
that soil biodiversity actively contribute to the
ensurence of some ecological services such as
availability of nutrients and water, protection
against pests and diseases, control of pathogens,
water filtering, carbon sequestration, erosion
control etc. Under this circumstances appear
the hypothesis according to which conservation
and management of soil biodiversity may ensure
sustainability
and
productivity
of
agroecosystems with soil health assurance. The
mechanisms by which this can be realized
remain unknown and is an vast territory for
future research.
Table 1. Species richness of different soil organisms
(after Coleman and Whitman, 2004; Brussaard, 1998)
Taxonomic group
Microorganisms
Bacteria and
arhebacteria
Fungi
Microfauna
Protozoa
Nematodes
Mesofauna
Acari
Collembola
Diplura
Simphila
Pauropoda
Enchytraeide
Macrofauna
Roots herbivorus
insects
Miriapoda
Isoptera
Termite
Ants
Earthworms

Species
described

Species
estimated

3200
70000

?
1500000

40000
5000

200000
20000

20000
6500
659
160
500
600

80000
15000
?
?
?
?

40000
10000
2600
2000
8800
3700

?
?
10000
?
?
8000

In this paper several aspects of soil

biodiversity will be discussed. The focus will be
on the difficulties that appear when an exact

measurement and assesement of the soil

biodiversity is attempted, on the ways by which
this can be realized and on the functional role of
soil biodiversity in ecosystems.
2. Soil biodiversity assessment methods
Heywood quoted by Black (2003), considers
that the diversity of the soil is several orders of
magnitude higher than biodiversity above the
soil, and Swift (1993) quoted by the same
author, see the soil biodiversity as beeing the
last fronteer of biodiversity on the Earth [4, 16].
The highest value of soil biodiversity is due to
the specific proprieties of soil environment:
spatial heterogeneity, differences of physical,
biological and chemical characteristics of the
soil even at small distance; the high diversity of
food sources associated with soil organic
material. The competition for available soil
resources is the one that induce the growth of
biodiversity, potentially existing ecological
niches beeing occupied by different species.
The attempts to asses soil biodiversity have
led to the establishment of several methods and
indices that allow the assesement and
comparatison of the soil biodiversity of different
ecosystems and communities. It is, however,
obvious that at this moment, it is practically
impossible to quantify the entire biodiversity of
the soil in ecosystem. Therefore, according with
the available ressources and the needs of one
interested in these matter, a range of criteria that
allow the quantification of the soil biodiversity
can be selected.
The most popular method used consider the
taxonomic diversity of the communities
expressed as species richness. However, applied
to the soil biodiversity, this approach may
become inefficient or inexact because of the
great number of unknown species that live in
soil. For instance, if we take into consideration
soil bacteria, only 5% of this are under a form
that allows the development on culture media
and can be consequently identify. During last
time, molecular techniques have brought
considerable improvements
to the soil
microorganisms identification but the situation is
still a problematic one.
Difficulties apear also in the case of the soil
animal identification because of the sampling
procedure, number and dimension of the
samples, efficiency of separation, and the lack
of some easily to use identify keys.

SANDOR M. et al./ProEnvironment 1 (2008) 44 49

Anyway, taxonomic diversity can be defined

also at other levels than species like families, orders,
etc. This approach seems to be more realistic than the
first one and can be used successfully in comparative
studies. By using the number of species in a
community and the relative abundance of the species,
a range of diversity indices have been proposed.
These indices allow the comparison of two or more
communities by using results provided by some
mathematical formulas. The most popular among
these indices are
Shannon-Weiner index and
Simpson index. .Another way used to experss soil
biodiversity is ecological diversity [4]. Ecological
diversity can groupe organisms according to the size,
behavior, food and habitat preferences of individuals
or communities. According to the size, the soil
organisms are grouped in microflora, microfauna,
mesofauna, macrofauna and megafauna. When we
talk about feeding preferences the following groups
can be identified: saprophytes, producers, herbivores,
carnivores, fungivores, omnivores, predators. If we
take in consideration habitat preferences earthworms
can be epigeous, endogenous, anecic [5], and
collembolan populations can be divided into epigaeic,
hemidaphic and eudaphic [19]. Another way that can
be used to assess soil biodiversity is the one that takes
into consideration the functional role of different
species in ecosystem. Functional diversity reflects the
range of ecological services provided by soil
organisms and may be expressed in term of the
species or groups important to the maintenance of
different soil functions [8, 4]. Swift et al. (2004)
define a functional group as a group of species that
have similar effects on a specific biogeochimical
process at the ecosystem level [17].
The author considers that the soil biota can be
divided into 6 functional groups:
Ecosystem engineers organisms that through the
transport of the soil, building of aggregate
structures and formation of pores have a major
impact on soil physical proprieties;
Decomposers embrace organisms involved in
the breakdown and mineralization of organic
materials of animal or plant origin;
Microregrators (micropredators)- animals that
influence the nutrient flow through grazing and
other
interactions
with the decomposer
microorganisms;
Microsymbionts microorganisms that are
associated with roots of the plants and improve
nutrients uptake;
Pests and diseases organisms that can limit
primary production;
Elemental transformers includes a range of
bacteria that utilise sources of energy other than
organic matter and play a key roles in nutrient
cycles as transformars of C, N, S, etc.
This method of soil biodiversity assessement can
be considered easier to achieve and, what is more
important, gives informations regarding
the
functional role of different groups in ecosystem.

3. Functional significance of soil biodiversity in

ecosystems
Discussing the possible relationship between soil
biodiversity and ecosystem functions, Wolters (2001)
suggests two hypothesis: the rivet hypothesis which
said that each species has a specific effect on
ecosystem function and the redundant species
hypothesis which suggests that only a minimum
number of species are necessary to ensure the
ecosystem function. The relationships between soil
biodiversity and ecosystem function are extremely
complex and difficult to comprehend [21]. Beare et
al. (1997) proposed two views which can be used
when we talk about the relationship between soil
biodiversity and the ecosystems function. The first
aspect is based on a high degree of functional
redundancy among soil organisms and consider the
indices of species richness as beeing whitout
importance for the ecosystem function understanding
[3]. The second way emphasizes the importance of
the key species, the species that play an important
role in determining the structure and function of soil
system. Studies regarding the functional role of the
soil organisms have been focused only on the
relationships within a trophic level, altough, in the
case of the soil biodiversity, we deal with
relationships that occur on more than one trophic
level. Brussard et al. (2007) concluded that the
relationships that occur betwen more trophic levels
ensure the stability of the system. This thing has an
increased importance in agroecosystems, where
agricultural practices are perturbator factors which act
regularly [8]. The ensurance of agricultural
sustainability also implies the increase of water and
nutrient use efficiency [8] and soil biodiversity is able
to influence this factors. For instance, in an
experiment with soil fauna in Burkina Faso, Mando et
al. (1996) reported an increase of water use efficiency
in the treatments with
fauna comparing with
treatments without fauna [14]. P. Lavelle and A.
Spain (2005) showed that different soil functional
groups have different influence on soil structure and
thus they can influence differently efficiency of water
use [12]. Van Rhee quoted by Lee (1985), in a study
carried on in Holland, reported that the presence of
earthworms leads to an increasement of plants
available water up to 10% [13]. Regarding nutrient
use efficiancy, sudies of Vedder et al. (1996), Bardget
and Chan (1999) shows that a high biodiversity in
soil conducted to a higher amount of available
nutrients as a consequence of organic matter
mineralization [18, 2]. Soil biological community is
extremely complex and interractions between
different functional groups and their environment
lead to difficulties for an clear understanding of soil
biodiversity - soil functions relationships. Any way,
there are some attempts that presents soil biodiversity
and its functions. Bunning and Jimenez (2003)
present the main functions of the soil and the
organisms involved [9], together with some indicators
of soil quality (table 1).

SANDOR M. et al./ProEnvironment 1 (2008) 44 49

Table 2. Essential functions and ecosystem services provided by the soil biota and some indicators
(after Bunning i Jimenez, 2003)
Functions and services
Maintenance
of
soil
structure and regulation of
soil hydrological processes
Gas exchanges and carbon
sequestration
Nutrient cycling
Decomposition of organic
matter
Symbiotic and asymbiotic
relationships with plants
and their roots
Plant growth control direct and indirect effects
Soil detoxification
Suppression
of
pests,
parasites and diseases
Sources of
medicines

food

and

Soil biota
Bioturbating invertebrates and plant roots,
mycorrhizae and some other microorganisms

Indicators
Porosity,
aggregation,
infiltration, biogenic structures

Mostly microorganisms and plant roots,

some C protected in large compact biogenic
invertebrate aggregates
Mostly microorganisms and plant roots,
some soil and litter feeding invertebrates
Various saprophytic
and litter feeding
invertebrates, fungi, bacteria, actinomycetes,
and other microorganisms
Rhizobia, mycorrhizae, actinomycetes

Soil organic matter, gas and C

fluxes

Plant
roots,
rhizobia,
mycorrhizae,
actinomycetes, pathogens, phytoparasitic
nematodes, rhiyzophagous insects
Mostly microorganisms
Plants, mycorrhizae and other fungi,
nematodes, bacteria and various other
microorganisms, colembolla, earthworms,
various predators
Plants roots, various insects, earthworms,
vertebrates, microorganisms and their byproducts

Agrobiodiversity is a part of global

biodiversity which refers to the variety and
variability
of
plants,
animals
and
microorganisms which are important
for
agricultural production which result from the
interaction between the environment, genetic
resources and the management of agricultural
systems made it by man [11]. Agricultural
biodiversity takes into account not only the
genetic, species and agroecosystem diversity
and the different ways land and water resources
are used for production, but also cultural
diversity which influences human interaction at
all levels[11].
The neccesary requirements for a normal
agroecosystem
functioning
are:
well
identification of agricultural biodiversity
components, the establishment of the functional
role played by these components and measures
taken to conserve agrobiodiversity. This aspects
are emphasized by the services offered by
biodiversity
to
agricultural
ecosystems:
production of food, fibre and fuel; recycling of
nutrients; control
of local microclimate;
regulation of local hydrological processes;
regulation of pest popultion density; water or
soil detoxification [1]. The same author shows
that the loss of biological diversity in

Yield, nodules, humus content

Humus content, litter
Nodules, Arbuscular Mycorrhiza
Fungi
Yield, rooting, plant health
Pollutants
Disease, damage incidence

Diverse organisms

agroecosystems can generate significant

economical and enviromental costs.
The type and abundance of agrobiodiversity
differs from one agroecosystem to another,
according to the age, structure and management
practices. After Swift and Anderson quoted by
Altieri
(1999),
agricultural
biodiversity
comprises the following parts [1]:
Productive biota: crops and animals chosen
by farmer for production; these plants and
animals play a determining role in the
diversity
and
complexity
of
the
agroecosystem;
Resource biota: organisms that contribute to
agricultural productivity through pollination,
control of pests and diseases, decomposition
etc.;
Destructive biota: weeds, insect pests,
pathogen etc which are kept by the farmer at
small
abundance through specific
agricultural management.
According to M. Swift et al. (2004) two
components of agrobiodiversity can be
recognized, namely planned diversity defined as
the totality crops and animals that are
deliberately introduced by the farmer and
associated diversity which includes all soil flora
and fauna, herbivores, carnivores, decomposers,
etc. that
will thrive in the agroecosystem

SANDOR M. et al./ProEnvironment 1 (2008) 44 49

according with their management and structure

[17]. The composition and diversity of planned

diversity will have an decisive influence on

associated diversity (fig. 1).

Agroecosystem
Management
Planned
Biodiversity
Creates conditions
that promote

Associated
Biodiversity

Promotes
Ecosystem
Function
Promotes

Biodiversity of
Surrounding
Environment

Figure 1. The relationship between planned biodiversity and associated biodiversity and how the two promote
ecosystem function (after Altieri, 1999)

According to M. Swift et al. (2004) two

components of agrobiodiversity can be
recognized, namely planned diversity defined as
the totality crops and animals that are
deliberately introduced by the farmer and
associated diversity which includes all soil flora
and fauna, herbivores, carnivores, decomposers,
etc. that
will thrive in the agroecosystem

according with their management and structure

[17]. The composition and diversity of planned
diversity will have an decisive influence on
associated diversity (fig. 2).

According to Altieri classification, soil

biodiversity is part of resource biota, while after
Swift, the soil biodiversity is part of the
associated biodiversity. However, we want to
emphasize the role of soil
biodiversity
forstructure, functions and integrity of
agroecosystems. This was correctly expressed
by Swift and Woomer (1993) who presented in a
figure the involvement of soil biota [16] in
processes that take place in the soil (fig. 2).

SANDOR M. et al./ProEnvironment 1 (2008) 44 49

Organic pools

Litter

Processes and properties

Constraints

Biota
Microbes

Decomposition

Fauna

Labile
Intermediate

Ion exchange

Translocation

Soil structure

Passive
Soil organic
matter

Disponibilizarea
nutrienilor

Detoxification

Chelation

Toxicity

Water
availability

Erodability

Figure 2. The role of soil biota in soil system (after Swift and Woomer, 1993)
5. Conclusions
The present paper tryed to emphasize some aspects regarding
the importance of soil biodiversity in ecosystems together with
some difficulties that may arise when we study these aspects.
Several conclusions may be drawn:
The biotic part of the soil is not enough studied both,
taxonomically and functionaly point of view, studies
regarding it could provide interesting data in the future; even
if available methods are not at all times efficient, it is
important to start so that we can improve what is already
know;
Some soil biodiversity guidelines or standards are necessary
for different lands in order to predict and analyse the
significance of any change of soil biodiversity; this can be
achieved only through appropriate local or regional
monitoring programms and through clear protective policies;
The soil biodiversity plays an important role in the
functioning of the ecosystems and is involved in the major
processes that take place within the ecosystems. It gives
stability and resilience to the ecosystems;
The management of the soil biodiversity can ensure the
guidance of certain
processes toward the human needs; within the agricultural
ecosystems this reality can contribute to the sustainability of
the production systems with long term soil quality ensurance.
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