Biological and biochemical analysis of soils

Summary There is an immense literature on biological and biochemical analyses of soils. Such analyses have revealed the enormous richness of species in soil and their vast range of metabolic potentials and ecological diversity. Accordingly, the approaches used to investigate the soil biota and its biochemistry usually have to be modified or adapted depending upon the purpose of the investigation.Studies of micro-organisms in the soil environment, are complicated because microbial cells are commonly attached to surfaces where they live side-by-side with other populations in consortia usually containing different morphological and physiological types. Such assemblages of organisms cannot be described quantitatively using cultural techniques, such as plate counts, which underestimate both cell numbers and viable biomass. The development of more powerful observational and staining techniques has improved our knowledge of the diverse morphological and biochemical composition of soil micro-communities. Such findings have been amplified at a grosser level by laboratory studies with multi-component systems (microcosms) to mimic field situations and to assess the range of biochemical potentials of microbial consortia.But despite notable advances in analytical methods we are still, with a few exceptions, unable to detect or identify those microorganisms which carry out specific biochemical transformations or determine whether particular cells are alive, dormant or dead at the time of observation.Considerable work has been done to define some of the fundamental ecological attributes of microbial assemblages in soil. Productive work on the metabolic activities of the soil microbiota, specially geochemical transformations of C, N, S and P, has been under way for more than a century. But only in more recent years have more sensitive and reproducible analytical methods become available to measure viable biomass in soil. This will enable some insight to be gained into the role that microbial biomass plays as a labile source and sink for plant nutrients.Introductory lecture