ENV

Last Update: 4 November 2017 Part I

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Soil Organisms interaction & Function
Soil life or soil biota is a collective term for all the organisms living within the soil. Soil
biology is the study of microbial and faunal activity and ecology in soil. These organisms
include earthworms, nematodes, protozoa, fungi and bacteria. Soil biology plays a vital role
in determining many soil characteristics yet, being a relatively new science, much remains
unknown about soil biology and about how the nature of soil is affected.
Overview
The soil is home to a large proportion of the world's genetic diversity. The linkages between
soil organisms and soil functions are observed to be incredibly complex. The
interconnectedness and complexity of this soil food web means any appraisal of soil
function must necessarily take into account interactions with the living communities that
exist within the soil. We know that soil organisms break down organic matter, making
nutrients available for uptake by plants and other organisms. The nutrients stored in the
bodies of soil organisms prevent nutrient loss by leaching. Microbial exudates act to
maintain soil structure, and earthworms are important in bioturbation. However, we find that
we don't understand critical aspects about how these populations function and interact. The
discovery of glomalin in 1995 indicates that we lack the knowledge to correctly answer some
of the most basic questions about the biogeochemical cycle in soils. We have much work
ahead to gain a better understanding of how soil biological components affect us and the
planet they share with us.
In a balanced soil, plants grow in an active and vibrant environment. The mineral content of
the soil and its physical structure are important for their well-being, but it is the life in the
earth that powers its cycles and provides its fertility. Without the activities of soil organisms,
organic materials would accumulate and litter the soil surface, and there would be no food
for plants. The soil biota includes:
Megafauna: size range 20 mm upwards, e.g. moles, rabbits, and rodents.
Macrofauna: size range 2-20 mm, e.g. woodlice, earthworms, beetles, centipedes,
slugs, snails, ants, and harvestmen.
Mesofauna: size range 100 micrometre-2 mm, e.g. tardigrades, mites and springtails.
Microfauna and Microflora: size range 1-100 micrometres, e.g. yeasts, bacteria,
fungi, protozoa, roundworms, and rotifers.

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Of these, bacteria and fungi play key roles in maintaining a healthy soil. They act as
decomposers that break down organic materials to produce detritus and other breakdown
products. Soil detritivores, like earthworms, ingest detritus and decompose it. Saprotrophs,
well represented by fungi and bacteria, extract soiluble nutrients from delitro.
Bacteria
Bacteria are single-celled organisms, and are the most numerous denizens of the soil, with
populations ranging from 100 million to 3 billion in a gram. They are capable of very rapid
reproduction by binary fission (dividing into two) in favourable conditions. One bacterium is
capable of producing 16 million more in just 24 hours. Most soil bacteria live in close
proximity to plant roots and are often referred to as rhizobacteria. Bacteria live in soil water,
including the film of moisture surrounding soil particles, and some are able to swim by
means of flagella. The majority of the beneficial soil-dwelling bacteria need oxygen (and are
thus termed aerobic bacteria), whilst those that do not require air are referred to as anaerobic,
and tend to cause putrefaction of dead organic matter. Aerobic bacteria are most active in a
soil that is moist (but not saturated, as this will deprive aerobic bacteria of the air that they
require), and neutral soil pH, and where there is plenty of food (carbohydrates and
micronutrients from organic matter) available. Hostile conditions will not completely kill
bacteria; rather, the bacteria will stop growing and get into a dormant stage, and those
individuals with pro-adaptive mutations may compete better in the new conditions. Gram
positive bacteria produce spores in order to wait for more favourable circumstances, and
Gram negative bacteria gets into a "nonculturable" stage.
From the organic gardener's point of view,
the important roles that bacteria play are:
The nitrogen cycle
Nitrification
Nitrification is a vital part of the nitrogen
cycle wherein certain bacteria (which
manufacture their own carbohydrate supply
without using the process of
photosynthesis) are able to transform
nitrogen in the form of ammonium, which
is produced by the decomposition of
proteins, into nitrates, which are available
to growing plants, and once again converted to proteins.
Nitrogen fixation
In another part of the cycle, the process of nitrogen fixation constantly puts additional
nitrogen into biological circulation. This is carried out by free-living nitrogen-fixing bacteria
in the soil or water such as Azotobacter, or by those which live in close symbiosis with
leguminous plants, such as rhizobia. These bacteria form colonies in nodules they create on
the roots of peas, beans, and related species. These are able to convert nitrogen from the
atmosphere into nitrogen-containing organic substances.
Denitrification

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While nitrogen fixation converts nitrogen from the atmosphere into organic compounds, a
series of processes called denitrification returns an approximately equal amount of nitrogen
to the atmosphere. Denitrifying bacteria tend to be anaerobes, or facultatively anaerobes (can
alter between the oxygen dependent and oxygen independent types of metabolisms),
including Achromobacter and Pseudomonas. The putrefaction process caused by oxygen-
free conditions converts nitrates and nitrites in soil into nitrogen gas or into gaseous
compounds such as nitrous oxide or nitric oxide. In excess, denitrification can lead to overall
losses of available soil nitrogen and subsequent loss of soil fertility. However, fixed nitrogen
may circulate many times between organisms and the soil before denitrification returns it to
the atmosphere. The diagram below illustrates the nitrogen cycle.
Actinobacteria
Actinobacteria are critical in the decomposition of organic matter and in humus formation,
and their presence is responsible for the sweet "earthy" aroma which is associated with a
good healthy soil. They require plenty of air and a pH between 6.0 and 7.5, but are more
tolerant of dry conditions than most other bacteria and fungi.
Fungi
A gram of garden soil can contain around one million fungi, such as yeasts and moulds.
Fungi have no chlorophyll, and are not able to photosynthesise; besides, they can't use
atmospheric carbon dioxide as a source of carbon, therefore they are chemo-heterotrophic,
meaning that, like animals, they require a chemical source of energy rather than being able to
use light as an energy source, as well as organic substrates to get carbon for growth and
development.
Many fungi are parasitic, often causing disease to their living host plant, although some have
beneficial relationships with living plants as we shall see below. In terms of soil and humus
creation, the most important fungi tend to be saprotrophic, that is, they live on dead or
decaying organic matter, thus breaking it down and converting it to forms which are
available to the higher plants. A succession of fungi species will colonise the dead matter,
beginning with those that use sugars and starches, which are succeeded by those that are able
to break down cellulose and lignins.
Fungi spread underground by sending long thin threads known as mycelium throughout the
soil; these threads can be observed throughout many soils and compost heaps. From the
mycelia the fungi is able to throw up its fruiting bodies, the visible part above the soil (e.g.,
mushrooms, toadstools and puffballs) which may contain millions of spores. When the
fruiting body bursts, these spores are dispersed through the air to settle in fresh
environments, and are able to lie dormant for up to years until the right conditions for their
activation arise or the right food is made available.

Mycorrhizae
Those fungi that are able to live symbiotically with living plants, creating a relationship that
is beneficial to both, are known as Mycorrhizae (from myco meaning fungal and rhiza
meaning root). Plant root hairs are invaded by the mycelia of the mycorrhiza, which lives
partly in the soil and partly in the root, and may either cover the length of the root hair as a
sheath or be concentrated around its tip. The mycorrhiza obtains the carbohydrates that it
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requires from the root, in return providing the plant with nutrients including nitrogen and
moisture. Later the plant roots will also absorb the mycelium into its own tissues.
Beneficial mycorrhizal associations are to be found in many of our edible and flowering
crops. Shewell Cooper suggests that these include at least 80% of the brassica and solanum
families (including tomatoes and potatoes), as well as the majority of tree species, especially
in forest and woodlands. Here the mycorrhizae create a fine underground mesh which
extends greatly beyond the limits of the tree's roots, thus greatly increasing their feeding
range and actually causing neighbouring trees to become physically interconnected. The
benefits of mycorrhizal relations to their plant partners are not limited to nutrients, but can be
essential for plant reproduction: in situations where little light is able to reach the forest
floor, such as the North American pine forests, a young seedling cannot obtain sufficient
light to photosynthesise for itself and will not grow properly in a sterile soil. But if the
ground is underlain by a mycorrhizal mat then the developing seedling will throw down roots
that can link with the fungal threads and through them obtain the nutrients it needs, often
indirectly obtained from its parents or neighbouring trees.
David Attenborough points out the plant/fungi/animal relationship that creates a "Three way
harmonious trio" to be found in forest ecosystems wherein the plant/fungi symbiosis is
enhanced by animals such as the wild boar, deer, mice or flying squirrel which feed upon the
fungi's fruiting bodies, including truffles, and cause their further spread (Private Life Of
Plants, 1995). A greater understanding of the complex relationships which pervade natural
systems is one of the major justifications of the organic gardener, in refraining from the use
of artificial chemicals and the damage these might cause.
SOIL FOOD WEB
The soil food web is the community of organisms living all or part of their lives in the soil. It
describes a complex living system in the soil and how it interacts with the environment,
plants, and animals.
Introduction
Food webs describe the transfer of energy between species in an ecosystem. While a food
chain examines one, linear, energy pathway through an ecosystem, a food web is more
complex and illustrates all of the potential pathways. Much of this transferred energy comes
from the sun. Plants use the suns energy to convert inorganic compounds into energy-rich,
organic compounds, turning carbon dioxide and minerals into plant material by
photosynthesis. Plants are called autotrophs because they make their own energy; they are
also called producers because they produce energy available for other organisms to eat.
Heterotrophs are consumers that cannot make their own food. In order to obtain energy they
eat plants or other heterotrophs.
Above ground foodwebs
In above ground food webs, energy moves from producers (plants) to primary consumers
(herbivores) and then to secondary consumers (predators). The phrase, trophic level, refers to
the different levels or steps in the energy pathway. In other words, the producers, consumers,
and decomposers are the main trophic levels (DeAngelis 1992). This chain of energy
transferring from one species to another can continue several more times, but eventually

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ends. At the end of the food chain, decomposers such as bacteria and fungi break down dead
plant and animal material into simple nutrients.
Below ground foodwebs
How are soil food webs different? The decomposers at the end of the surface food web are
only the beginning below ground. While living plants are the largest source of energy above
ground, the most abundant energy resource in the soil is detritus, or dead plant and animal
matter. The primary consumers in soil are often microbes such as bacteria and fungi that
consume detritus. There are at least 10,000 species and more than 1 billion individual
bacteria in 1 gram of soil (Torsvik et al. 1990). These fast growing microbes act as a food
base for many other soil organisms such as mites, collembolans, nematodes and
enchytraeids. Underground herbivores can also get energy directly by grazing on or
parasitizing plant roots (see root-knot nematode) and these herbivores have their own
predators (such as entomopathogenic nematodes). For an overview of soil organisms see:
Soil life
Methodology
The nature of soil makes direct observation of food webs difficult. Since soil organisms
range in size from less than 0.1 mm (nematodes) to greater than 2 mm (earthworms) there
are many different ways to extract them. Soil samples are often taken using a metal core.
Larger macrofauna such as earthworms and insect larvae can be removed by hand, but this is
impossible for smaller nematodes and soil arthropods. Most methods to extract small
organisms are dynamic; they depend on the ability of the organisms to move out of the soil.
For example, a Berlese funnel, used to collect small arthropods, creates a light/heat gradient
in the soil sample. As the microarthopods move down, away from the light and heat, they fall
through a funnel and into a collection vial. A similar method, the Baermann funnel, is used
for nematodes. The Baerman funnel is wet, however (while the Berlese funnel is dry) and
does not depend on a light/heat gradient. Nematodes move out of the soil and to the bottom
of the funnel because, as they move, they are denser than water and are unable to swim. 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.
An example of a topological food web.
Image courtesy of USDA.
Types of food webs
There are three different types of food
web representations: topological (or
traditional) food webs, flow webs and
interaction webs. These webs can
describe systems both above and below
ground.
Topological webs
Early food webs were topological; they
were descriptive and provided a
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nonquantitative picture of consumers, resources and the links between them. Pimm et al.
(1991) described these webs as a map of which organisms in a community eat which other
kinds. The earliest topological food web, made in 1912, examined the predators and parasites
of cotton boll weevil (reviewed by Pimm et al. 1991). Researchers analyzed and compared
topological webs between ecosystems by measuring the webs interaction chain lengths and
connectivity (Pimm et al. 1991). One problem faced in standardizing such measurements is
that there are often too many species for each to have a separate box. Depending on the
author, the number of species aggregated or separated into functional groups may be
different (De Ruiter et al. 1996). Authors may even eliminate some organisms. By
convention, the dead material flowing back to detritus is not shown, as it would complicate
the figure, but it is taken account in any calculations (De Ruiter et al. 1996).
Flow webs
Flow webs build on topological webs, adding quantitative information on the movement of
carbon or other nutrients from producers to consumers. Hunt et al. (1987) published the first
flow web for soil, describing the short grass prairie in Colorado, USA. The authors estimated
nitrogen transferral rates through the soil food web and calculated nitrogen mineralization
rates for a range of soil organisms. In another landmark study, researchers from the
Lovinkhoeve Experimental Farm in the Netherlands examined the flow of carbon and
illustrated transfer rates with arrows of different thicknesses (Brussaard et al. 1988). In order
to create a flow web, a topological web is first constructed. After the members of the web are
decided, the biomass of each functional group is calculated, usually in kg carbon/hectare. In
order to calculate feeding rates, researchers assume that the population of the functional
group is in equilibrium. At equilibrium, the reproduction of the group balances the rate at
which members are lost through natural death and predation (Hunt et al. 1987). When
feeding rate is known, the efficiency with which nutrients are converted into organism
biomass can be calculated. This energy stored in the organism represents the amount
available to be passed on to the next trophic level. After constructing the first soil flow webs,
researchers discovered that nutrients and energy flowed from lower resources to higher
trophic levels through three main channels (Hunt et al. 1987; Brussaard et al. 1988). The
bacterial and fungal channels had the largest energy flow, while the herbivory channel, in
which organisms directly consumed plant roots, was smaller. It is now widely recognized
that bacteria and fungi are critical to the decomposition of carbon and nitrogen and play
important roles in both the carbon cycle and nitrogen cycle.
Interaction web
An interaction web, shown below, is similar to a topological web, but instead of showing the
movement of energy or materials, the arrows show how one group influences another. In
interaction food web models, every link has two
direct effects, one of the resource on the
consumer and one of the consumer on the
resource (Stiling 1999). The effect of the resource
on the consumer is positive, (the consumer gets
to eat) and the effect on the resource by the
consumer is negative (it is eaten). These direct,
trophic, effects can lead to indirect effects.
Indirect effects, represented by dashed lines,
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show the effect of one element on another to which it is not directly linked (Stiling 1999).
For example, in the simple interaction web below, when the predator eats the root herbivore,
the plant eaten by the herbivore may increase in biomass. We would then say that the
predator has a beneficial indirect effect on the plant roots
An example of a soil interaction web. Image courtesy of Kalessin11.
Food web control
Bottom-up effects
Bottom-up effects occur when the population density of a resource affects the population of
the resources consumer (Shurin et al. 2006). For example, in the figure above, an increase in
root density causes an increase in herbivore density that causes a corresponding increase in
predator density. Correlations in abundance or biomass between consumers and their
resources give evidence for bottom-up control (Shurin et al. 2006). An often-cited example
of a bottom-up effect is the relationship between herbivores and the primary productivity of
plants. In terrestrial ecosystems, the biomass of herbivores and detritivores increases with
primary productivity. An increase in primary productivity will result in a larger influx of leaf
litter into the soil ecosystem, which will provide more resources for bacterial and fungal
populations to grow. More microbes will allow an increase in bacterial and fungal feeding
nematodes, which are eaten by mites and other predatory nematodes. Thus, the entire food
web swells as more resources are added to the base (Shurin et al. 2006). When ecologists use
the term, bottom-up control, they are indicating that the biomass, abundance, or diversity of
higher trophic levels depend on resources from lower trophic levels (Stiling 1999).

Top-down effects
Ideas about top-down control are much more difficult to evaluate. Top-down effects occur
when the population density of a consumer affects that of its resource (Stiling 1999); for
example, a predator affects the density of its prey. Top-down control, therefore, refers to
situations where the abundance, diversity or biomass of lower trophic levels depends on
effects from consumers at higher trophic levers (Stiling 1999). A trophic cascade is a type of
top-down interaction that describes the indirect effects of predators. In a trophic cascade,
predators induce effects that cascade down food chain and affect biomass of organisms at
least two links away (Stiling 1999). The importance of trophic cascades and top-down
control in terrestrial ecosystems is actively debated in ecology (reviewed in Shurin et al.
2006) and the issue of whether trophic cascades occur in soils in no less complex (reviewed
in Wardle 2002). Trophic cascades do occur in both the bacterial and fungal energy channels
(Santos et al. 1981; Allen-Morley and Coleman 1989; Hedland and Ohrn 2000). However,
cascades may be infrequent, because many other studies show no top-down effects of
predators (Mikola and Setala 1998; Laakso and Setala 1999). In Mikola and Setalas study,
microbes eaten by nematodes grew faster when they were grazed upon frequently. This
compensatory growth slowed when the microbe feeding nematodes were removed.
Therefore, although top predators reduced the number of microbe feeding nematodes, there
was no overall change in microbial biomass. Besides the grazing effect, another barrier to top
down control in soil ecosystems is widespread omnivory, which by increasing the number of
trophic interactions, dampens effects from the top. The soil environment is also a matrix of
different temperatures, moistures and nutrient levels, and many organisms are able to
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become dormant to withstand difficult times. Depending on conditions, predators may be
separated from their potential prey by an insurmountable amount of space and time. Any top-
down effects that do occur will be limited in strength because soil food webs are donor
controlled. Donor control means that consumers have little or no effect on the renewal or
input of their resources (Stiling 1999). For example, aboveground herbivores can overgraze
an area and decrease the grass population, but decomposers cannot directly influence the rate
of falling plant litter. They can only indirectly influence the rate of input into their system
through nutrient recycling which, by helping plants to grow, eventually creates more litter
and detritus to fall (Moore 2003). If the entire soil food web were completely donor
controlled, however, bacterivores and fungivores would never greatly affect the bacteria and
fungi they consume. While bottom-up effects are no doubt important, many soil ecologists
suspect that top-down effects are also sometimes significant. Certain predators or parasites,
when added to the soil, can have a large effect on root herbivores and thereby indirectly
affect plant fitness. For example, in a coastal shrubland food chain the native
entomopathogenic nematode, Heterorhabditis marelatus, parasitized ghost moth caterpillars,
and ghost moth caterpillars consumed the roots of bush lupine. The presence of H. marelatus
correlated with lower caterpillar numbers and healthier plants. In addition, the researchers
observed high mortality of bush lupine in the absence of entomopathogenic nematodes.
These results implied that the nematode, as a natural enemy of the ghost moth caterpillar,
protected the plant from damage. The authors even suggested that the interaction was strong
enough to affect the population dynamics of bush lupine (Strong et al. 1996); this was
supported in later experimental work with naturally-growing populations of bush lupine
(Preisser 2003, Preisser and Strong 2004). Top down control has applications in agriculture
and is the principle behind biological control, the idea that plants can benefit from the
application of their herbivores enemies. While wasps and ladybugs are commonly
associated with biological control, parasitic nematodes and predatory mites are also added to
the soil to suppress pest populations and preserve crop plants. In order to use such biological
control agents effectively, a knowledge of the local soil food web is important.
Community matrix models
A community matrix model is a type of interaction web that uses differential equations to
describe every link in the topological web. Using Lotka-Volterra equations , that describe
predator-prey interactions, and food web energetics data such as biomass and feeding rate,
the strength of interactions between groups is calculated (de Ruiter et al. 1995). Community
matrix models can also show how small changes affect the overall stability of the web.
Stability of food webs
Mathematical modeling in food webs has raised the question of whether complex or simple
food webs are more stable. Until the last decade, it was believed that soil food webs were
relatively simple, with low degrees of connectance and omnivory (Wardle 2002). These
ideas stemmed from the mathematical models of May (1973) which predicted that
complexity destabilized food webs. May used community matrices in which species were
randomly linked with random interaction strength to show that local stability decreases with
complexity (measured as connectance), diversity, and average interaction strength among
species. The use of such random community matrices attracted much criticism. In other areas
of ecology, it was realized that the food webs used to make these models were grossly
oversimplified (Polis 1991) and did not represent the complexity of real ecosystems. It also
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became clear that soil food webs did not conform to these predictions. Soil ecologists
discovered that omnivory in food webs was common (Walter et al. 1991), and that food
chains could be long and complex (Hunt et al. 1987) and still remain resistant to disturbance
by drying, freezing, and fumigation (Wardle 2002). But why are complex food web more
stable? Many of the barriers to top-down trophic cascades also promote stability. Complex
food webs may be more stable if the interaction strengths are weak (May 1973) and soil food
webs appear to consist of many weak interactions and a few strong ones (De Ruiter et al.
1995). Donor controlled food webs may be inherently more stable, because it is difficult for
primary consumers to overtax their resources (De Angelis 1992). The structure of the soil
also acts as a buffer, separating organisms and preventing strong interactions (Wardle 1995).
Many soil organisms, for example bacteria, can remain dormant through difficult times and
reproduce quickly once conditions improve, making them resilient to disturbance.
Interactions not included in food webs
Despite their complexity, some interactions between species in the soil are not easily
classified by food webs. Litter transformers, mutualists, and ecosystem engineers all have
strong impacts on their communities that cannot be characterized as either top-down or
bottom-up. Litter transformers, such as isopods, consume dead plants and excrete fecal
pellets. While on the surface this may not seem impressive, the fecal pellets are moister and
higher in nutrients than the surrounding soil, which favors colonization by bacteria and
fungi. Decomposition of the fecal pellet by the microbes increases its nutrient value and the
isopod is able to re-ingest the pellets. When the isopods consume nutrient-poor litter, the
microbes enrich it for them and isopods prevented from eating their own feces can die
(Hassall and Rushton 1982). This mutualistic relationship has been called an external
rumen, similar to the mutualistic relationship between bacteria and cows. While the
bacterial symbionts of cows live inside the rumen of their stomach, isopods depend on
microbes outside their body. Ecosystems engineers, such as earthworms, modify their
environment and create habitat for other smaller organisms. Earthworms also stimulate
microbial activity by increasing soil aeration and moisture, and transporting litter into the
ground where it becomes available to other soil fauna (Wardle 2002). In aboveground and
aquatic food webs, the literature assumes that the most important interactions are
competition and predation. While soil food webs fit these sorts of interactions well, future
research needs to include more complex interactions such as mutualisms and habitat
modification. While they cannot characterize all interactions, soil food webs remain a useful
tool for describing ecosystems. The interactions between species in the soil and their effect
on decomposition continue to be well studied. Much remains unknown, however, about soil
food webs stability and how food webs change over time (Wardle 2002). This knowledge is
critical to understanding how food webs affect important qualities such as soil fertility.

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