Soil Mineral‐Organic Matter‐Microorganism Interactions and Ecosystem Health

Abstract

General measures of soil microbial diversity—phospholipid fatty acid analysis (PLFA) and metabolic diversity (as determined by the BIOLOG procedure)—have been shown in the chapter to be useful in characterization and differentiation of ecosystem microbial populations, both in native and managed soils. These general indicators are sensitive, easily applied techniques that are useful in assessing microbial community status and development in a wide range of soils and soil-like materials. Although reproducible “fingerprints” characteristic of specific soil systems result from these analyses, the direct relationship of specific metabolic activities or occurrence of specific fatty acids in the assay procedures to actual field situations has been questioned. Therefore, primary concerns for application of metabolic diversity and phospholipid fatty acid analyses to study of native soil systems needs to clarify the relationship between the laboratory derived data and the nature of the processes occurring in the field and the delineation of reasonable boundaries for data interpretation.