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Encyclopedia of Soil Science pp 450–453Cite as

Microhabitats

Part of the Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series book series (EESS)

Soil, the most complicated biomaterial on the planet, is a system in which minerals, fluids and organisms interact, with much feedback between the component parts, at scales ranging from the molecular to the planetary. At the smallest scale microorganisms survive, reproduce and move within the soil's pore space. Therefore, the size, shape and distribution of this space exerts a major influence over the dynamics of these soil organisms. However, since a large class of microorganisms are essentially aquatic and live in water films on the surface of soil particles, it is the interaction between soil structure and moisture which exerts the greatest influence. (Young and Crawford, 2004).

Soil pore space

Although one gram of soil may contain 10 9 bacteria and 10 3 m of fungal hyphae, it has been estimated that between 0.17% of soil organic matter surfaces, and 0.02% of soil mineral surfaces are occupied by soil microorganisms (Hissett et al., 1970). Other estimates suggest that active...

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Authors
  1. L. R. Hossner
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  2. Eiju Yatsu
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  3. Iain M. Young
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada

    Ward Chesworth

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© 2008 Springer

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Hossner, L.R., Yatsu, E., Young, I.M. (2008). Microhabitats. In: Chesworth, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Soil Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-3995-9_353

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