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Soil respiration is a key ecosystem process that releases carbon from the soil in the form of CO 2. CO 2 is acquired by plants from the atmosphere and converted into organic compounds in the process of photosynthesis. Plants use these organic compounds to build structural components or respire them to release energy.
Soil life, soil biota, soil fauna, or edaphon is a collective term that encompasses all organisms that spend a significant portion of their life cycle within a soil profile, or at the soil-litter interface. These organisms include earthworms, nematodes, protozoa, fungi, bacteria, different arthropods, as well as some reptiles (such as snakes ...
Soil carbon storage is an important function of terrestrial ecosystems. Soil contains more carbon than plants and the atmosphere combined. [1] Understanding what maintains the soil carbon pool is important to understand the current distribution of carbon on Earth, and how it will respond to environmental change.
Plant flowers exude energy-rich nectar above ground and plant roots exude acids, sugars, and ectoenzymes into the rhizosphere, adjusting the pH and feeding the food web underground. [2] [3] [4] Plants are called autotrophs because they make their own energy; they are also called producers because they produce energy available for other ...
A diazotroph is a microorganism that is able to grow without external sources of fixed nitrogen. Examples of organisms that do this are rhizobia and Frankia and Azospirillum. All diazotrophs contain iron-molybdenum or iron-vanadium nitrogenase systems. Two of the most studied systems are those of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Azotobacter vinelandii ...
As these organisms eat, grow, and move through the soil, they make it possible to have clean water, clean air, healthy plants, and moderated water flow. There are many ways that the soil food web is an integral part of landscape processes.
The darkened surfaces of biological soil crusts decreases soil albedo (a measure of the amount of light reflected off of the surface) compared to nearby soils, which increases the energy absorbed by the soil surface. Soils with well-developed biological soil crusts can be over 12 °C (22 °F) warmer than adjacent surfaces.
Fungi are abundant in soil, but bacteria are more abundant. Fungi are important in the soil as food sources for other, larger organisms, pathogens, beneficial symbiotic relationships with plants or other organisms and soil health. Fungi can be split into species based primarily on the size, shape and color of their reproductive spores, which ...