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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 ...
From the ancient time, people grow the leguminous crops to make the soil more fertile. And the reason for this is: the root of leguminous crops are symbiotic with the rhizobia (a kind of diazotroph). These rhizobia can be considered as a natural biofertilizer to provide available nitrogen in the soil.
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.
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 ...
For instance, the carbon cycling within the soil can be affected by nematodes who will feed on the roots of plants, impacting the organic carbon in the soil. Similarly, soil protozoa are able to release phosphorus and nitrogen into the soil and higher trophic levels by dissolving the organic material and nutrients available.
For example, biological soil crusts are more dominated by green algae on more acidic and less salty soils, whereas cyanobacteria are more favored on alkaline and haline soils. Within a climate zone , the abundance of lichens and mosses in biological soil crusts generally increases with increasing clay and silt content and decreasing sand.
They are slow-growing in contrast to Rhizobium species, which are considered fast-growing rhizobia. In a liquid medium, Bradyrhizobium species take 3–5 days to create a moderate turbidity and 6–8 hours to double in population size. They tend to grow best with pentoses as carbon sources. [4]
Soil erosion occurs naturally, but human activities can greatly increase its severity. [28] Soil that is healthy is fertile and productive. [29] But soil erosion leads to a loss of topsoil, organic matter, and nutrients; it breaks down soil structure and decreases water storage capacity, reducing fertility and water availability to plant roots.