Estimation of microbial biomass and activity in soil using microcalorimetry

Relationships between the rate of heat output from soil, the rate of respiration and the soil microbial biomass were investigated for 25 soils from northern Britain. The rate of heat output, measured in a Calvet microcalorimeter at 22°C, correlated well with the rate of carbon dioxide respiration. The average amount of heat evolved per cm³ of gas respired. 21.1 J cm^?3, suggests that the biomass metabolism was largely aerobic. The rate of heat output per unit of total microbial biomass was remarkably uniform over a wide range of soils, but showed differences depending upon whether the soil had been stored or amended. Mineral soils that had been stored at 4°C had the lowest heat output, 12.0 mW g^?1 biomass C, compared with a mean of 20.4 mW g^?1 biomass C for freshly-collected soils. Amendment with glucose (0.5% w/w) caused an immediate increase in respiration and heat output, up to 59.4 mW g^?1 biomass C for stored soils and 188.2 mW g^?1 biomass C for freshly collected soils. There was a consistent relationship between the biomass and the rate of heat output from freshly collected and amended mineral and organic soils which gave a linear fit using log transformed data: y= 0.6970+ 1.025x (r= 0.98, P < 0.001) (y=log₁₀ biomass C, μgC g^?1; x=log₁₀ rate of heat output at 22°C, μW g^?1). The overall relationship between biomass and the rate of heat output for all the amended samples was: 1 g biomass C= 180.05 ± 34.61 mW.