Variations in the size of the soil biomass |
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Authors: | J.M. Lynch Lynda M. Panting |
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Affiliation: | Agricultural Research Council Letcombe Laboratory, Wantage, OxonOX12 9JT, U.K. |
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Abstract: | In the surface 5 cm of a clay soil in 2 successive years the microbial biomass, as measured by a fumigation-respiration technique, was constant. The biomasses in two clay soils were approximately ten times greater than that in a silt loam. When straw from a preceding crop was chopped and left on the soil surface the biomass after 8 months was greater by a factor of two than that in soil where the straw had been burnt. Where soil had been kept in grass for 9 yr, the biomass was greater by a factor of three than that in soil of the same kind that had been in arable cultivation for the previous 4 yr. As the fumigation-respiration technique measured only the microbial and microfaunal contribution to the biomass, the total biomass can only be assessed by measuring the root contribution separately; when this was done the total biomass in the grassland was found to be greater by a factor of about six. |
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