Soil Ecology
- LAST REVIEWED: 07 January 2022
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 May 2012
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199830060-0067
- LAST REVIEWED: 07 January 2022
- LAST MODIFIED: 23 May 2012
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199830060-0067
Introduction
The study of soil ecology has a long tradition. Most of this interest, until relatively recently, has been from an agricultural perspective, but now it is widely accepted that soil ecology is central to the study of terrestrial ecology. Early research in soil ecology was largely descriptive, detailing the abundance of diversity of organisms in soils of different habitats. However, interest in functional soil ecology started in the 1980s with studies of trophic interactions in soil and their importance for nutrient cycles and decomposition. Now, the topic has blossomed, with the help of new technologies that allow the study of soil organisms and their activities in situ, and there is currently widespread recognition that soil ecology is fundamental to our understanding of the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems and their response to global change. Today, the field of soil ecology is dominated by discussions on the use of new molecular tools that enable ecologists to understand what regulates patterns of diversity in soil, the functional role of soil biodiversity and plant-soil interactions, especially those that occur at the root-soil interface, and the role of soil biological communities in regulating ecosystem responses to global change, including the global carbon cycle under climate change. Many challenges still remain in soil ecology, and perhaps the most significant is the need for a stronger theoretical basis for the subject; almost all studies in this area have been carried out from an empirical perspective, and modeling approaches are still in their infancy. As a consequence, our ability to make predictions about the role of soil biological interactions and feedbacks in regulating terrestrial ecosystem processes and their response to global change remains limited.
General Overviews
It has long been known that soil organisms and their activities are central to the maintenance of soil fertility. As a result, there is a rich historical literature on the topic of soil biology in agriculture, including pioneering studies on the soil microbial biomass concept—the living component of the soil organic matter—which revolutionized the field (Jenkinson and Powlson 1976). Despite this, it is only in relatively recent years that community and ecosystem ecologists have turned their attention to the ecology of soil and its role in regulating ecosystem processes, such as decomposition, nutrient and carbon cycling, and plant community dynamics. Initial work in this area focused initially on topics such as controls on decomposition processes, including the highly influential synthesis of Swift, et al. 1979, and the role of trophic interactions in soil for processes of decomposition and nutrient cycling (Anderson, et al. 1983; Clarholm 1985), and plant nutrient acquisition and growth (Ingham, et al. 1985; Setälä and Huhta 1991). These studies laid the foundation for much subsequent work that has shown how multitrophic interactions in soil can serve as drivers of decomposition, plant nutrient acquisition and growth, and vegetation dynamics. Another key development in this area has been the growing recognition that terrestrial ecosystems consist of both aboveground and belowground subsystems, and that feedbacks between these subsystems play a crucial role in regulating community structure and ecosystem functioning (Wardle, et al. 2004). As a result, it is now widely accepted that biotic interactions between aboveground and belowground communities play a major role in regulating the response of terrestrial ecosystems to human-induced global change (Bardgett and Wardle 2010).
Anderson, Jonathan M., Philip Ineson, and S. A. Huish. 1983. Nitrogen and cation mobilization by soil fauna feeding on leaf litter and soil organic matter from deciduous woodlands. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 15:463–467.
DOI: 10.1016/0038-0717(83)90012-3
This study was among the first to show how the activities of various groups of macrofauna can cause a marked increase in soil nutrient availability in forest organic matter.
Bardgett, Richard D., and David A. Wardle. 2010. Aboveground–belowground linkages: Biotic interactions, ecosystem processes, and global change. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This book provides a comprehensive synthesis of recent advances in our understanding of the roles that interactions between aboveground and belowground communities play in regulating the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems, and their responses to global change.
Clarholm, Marianne. 1985. Interactions of bacteria, protozoa and plants leading to mineralization of soil nitrogen. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 17:181–187.
DOI: 10.1016/0038-0717(85)90113-0
This study established the concept of the microbial loop in soil, whereby grazing of bacteria by protozoa is necessary to make nitrogen contained in the microbial biomass available for plant uptake.
Ingham, Russell E., J. A. Trofymow, Elaine R. Ingham, and David C. Coleman. 1985. Interactions of bacteria, fungi, and their nematode grazers: Effects on nutrient cycling and plant-growth. Ecological Monographs 55.1: 119–140.
DOI: 10.2307/1942528
This paper was one of the first studies to show experimentally that the feeding activities of soil animals on microbes enhance rates of nitrogen mineralization and plant nitrogen uptake.
Jenkinson, David S., and David S. Powlson. 1976. Effects of biocidal treatments on metabolism in soil: 5. Method for measuring soil biomass. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 8:209–213.
This paper describes a new method for measuring microbial biomass in soil: soil is fumigated with chloroform, then the chloroform is removed, the soil incubated, and carbon dioxide evolution measured.
Setälä, Heikki, and Veikko Huhta. 1991. Soil fauna increase Betula pendula growth: Laboratory experiments with coniferous forest floor. Ecology 72.2: 665–671.
DOI: 10.2307/2937206
This paper describes a mesocosm experiment with sterilized and refaunated treatments, the results of which indicate that soil fauna, via enhanced nutrient mobilization and favorable changes in the structural soil properties, exert a positive influence on plant growth.
Swift, Michael J., O. William Heal, and Jonathan M. Anderson. 1979. Decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems. Oxford: Blackwell.
This classic book provides a comprehensive synthesis of decomposition processes and their role in ecosystems.
Wardle, David A., Richard D. Bardgett, John N. Klironomos, Heikki Setälä, Wim H. van der Putten, and Diana H. Wall. 2004. Ecological linkages between aboveground and belowground biota. Science 304:1629–1633.
This paper proposes a framework for understanding how aboveground and belowground communities interact, and identifies the direct root-associated and the indirect decomposer pathways through which they operate.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Accounting for Ecological Capital
- Adaptive Radiation
- Agroecology
- Allelopathy
- Allocation of Reproductive Resources in Plants
- Animals, Functional Morphology of
- Animals, Reproductive Allocation in
- Animals, Thermoregulation in
- Antarctic Environments and Ecology
- Anthropocentrism
- Applied Ecology
- Aquatic Conservation
- Aquatic Nutrient Cycling
- Archaea, Ecology of
- Assembly Models
- Autecology
- Bacterial Diversity in Freshwater
- Benthic Ecology
- Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning
- Biodiversity, Dimensionality of
- Biodiversity Patterns in Agricultural Systms
- Biofuels
- Biogeochemistry
- Biological Chaos and Complex Dynamics
- Biome, Alpine
- Biome, Boreal
- Biome, Desert
- Biome, Grassland
- Biome, Savanna
- Biome, Tundra
- Biomes, African
- Biomes, East Asian
- Biomes, Mountain
- Biomes, North American
- Biomes, South Asian
- Biophilia
- Braun, E. Lucy
- Bryophyte Ecology
- Butterfly Ecology
- Carson, Rachel
- Chemical Ecology
- Classification Analysis
- Coastal Dune Habitats
- Coevolution
- Communicating Ecology
- Communities and Ecosystems, Indirect Effects in
- Communities, Top-Down and Bottom-Up Regulation of
- Community Concept, The
- Community Ecology
- Community Genetics
- Community Phenology
- Competition and Coexistence in Animal Communities
- Competition in Plant Communities
- Complexity Theory
- Conservation Biology
- Conservation Genetics
- Coral Reefs
- Darwin, Charles
- Dead Wood in Forest Ecosystems
- Decomposition
- De-Glaciation, Ecology of
- Dendroecology
- Disease Ecology
- Dispersal
- Drought as a Disturbance in Forests
- Early Explorers, The
- Earth’s Climate, The
- Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics
- Ecological Dynamics in Fragmented Landscapes
- Ecological Education
- Ecological Engineering
- Ecological Forecasting
- Ecological Informatics
- Ecological Relevance of Speciation
- Ecology, Introductory Sources in
- Ecology, Microbial (Community)
- Ecology of Emerging Zoonotic Viruses
- Ecology of the Atlantic Forest
- Ecology, Stochastic Processes in
- Ecosystem Ecology
- Ecosystem Engineers
- Ecosystem Multifunctionality
- Ecosystem Services
- Ecosystem Services, Conservation of
- Ecotourism
- Elton, Charles
- Endophytes, Fungal
- Energy Flow
- Environmental Anthropology
- Environmental Justice
- Environments, Extreme
- Ethics, Ecological
- European Natural History Tradition
- Evolutionarily Stable Strategies
- Facilitation and the Organization of Communities
- Fern and Lycophyte Ecology
- Fire Ecology
- Food Webs
- Foraging Behavior, Implications of
- Foraging, Optimal
- Forests, Temperate Coniferous
- Forests, Temperate Deciduous
- Freshwater Invertebrate Ecology
- Genetic Considerations in Plant Ecological Restoration
- Genomics, Ecological
- Geoecology
- Geographic Range
- Gleason, Henry
- Grazer Ecology
- Greig-Smith, Peter
- Gymnosperm Ecology
- Habitat Selection
- Harper, John L.
- Harvesting Alternative Water Resources (US West)
- Heavy Metal Tolerance
- Heterogeneity
- Himalaya, Ecology of the
- Host-Parasitoid Interactions
- Human Ecology
- Human Ecology of the Andes
- Human-Wildlife Conflict and Coexistence
- Hutchinson, G. Evelyn
- Indigenous Ecologies
- Industrial Ecology
- Insect Ecology, Terrestrial
- Invasive Species
- Island Biogeography Theory
- Island Biology
- Keystone Species
- Kin Selection
- Landscape Dynamics
- Landscape Ecology
- Laws, Ecological
- Legume-Rhizobium Symbiosis, The
- Leopold, Aldo
- Lichen Ecology
- Life History
- Limnology
- Literature, Ecology and
- MacArthur, Robert H.
- Mangrove Zone Ecology
- Marine Fisheries Management
- Mass Effects
- Mathematical Ecology
- Mating Systems
- Maximum Sustainable Yield
- Metabolic Scaling Theory
- Metacommunity Dynamics
- Metapopulations and Spatial Population Processes
- Microclimate Ecology
- Mimicry
- Multiple Stable States and Catastrophic Shifts in Ecosyste...
- Mutualisms and Symbioses
- Mycorrhizal Ecology
- Natural History Tradition, The
- Networks, Ecological
- Niche Versus Neutral Models of Community Organization
- Niches
- Nutrient Foraging in Plants
- Ocean Sprawl
- Odum, Eugene and Howard
- Old Fields
- Ordination Analysis
- Organic Agriculture, Ecology of
- Paleoecology
- Paleolimnology
- Parental Care, Evolution of
- Pastures and Pastoralism
- Patch Dynamics
- Peatlands
- Phenotypic Plasticity
- Phenotypic Selection
- Philosophy, Ecological
- Phylogenetics and Comparative Methods
- Physiological Ecology of Nutrient Acquisition in Animals
- Physiological Ecology of Photosynthesis
- Physiological Ecology of Water Balance in Terrestrial Anim...
- Physiological Ecology of Water Balance in Terrestrial Plan...
- Plant Blindness
- Plant Disease Epidemiology
- Plant Ecological Responses to Extreme Climatic Events
- Plant-Insect Interactions
- Polar Regions
- Pollination Ecology
- Population Dynamics, Density-Dependence and Single-Species
- Population Dynamics, Methods in
- Population Ecology, Animal
- Population Ecology, Plant
- Population Fluctuations and Cycles
- Population Genetics
- Population Viability Analysis
- Populations and Communities, Dynamics of Age- and Stage-St...
- Predation and Community Organization
- Predator-Prey Interactions
- Radioecology
- Reductionism Versus Holism
- Religion and Ecology
- Remote Sensing
- Restoration Ecology
- Rewilding
- Ricketts, Edward Flanders Robb
- Secondary Production
- Seed Ecology
- Senescence
- Serpentine Soils
- Shelford, Victor
- Simulation Modeling
- Socioecology
- Soil Biogeochemistry
- Soil Ecology
- Spatial Pattern Analysis
- Spatial Patterns of Species Biodiversity in Terrestrial En...
- Spatial Scale and Biodiversity
- Species Distribution Modeling
- Species Extinctions
- Species Responses to Climate Change
- Species-Area Relationships
- Stability and Ecosystem Resilience, A Below-Ground Perspec...
- Stoichiometry, Ecological
- Stream Ecology
- Succession
- Sustainable Development
- Systematic Conservation Planning
- Systems Ecology
- Tansley, Sir Arthur
- Terrestrial Nitrogen Cycle
- Terrestrial Resource Limitation
- Territoriality
- Theory and Practice of Biological Control
- Thermal Ecology of Animals
- Tragedy of the Commons
- Transient Dynamics
- Trophic Levels
- Tropical Humid Forest Biome
- Urban Ecology
- Vegetation Classification
- Vegetation Mapping
- Vicariance Biogeography
- Weed Ecology
- Wetland Ecology
- Whittaker, Robert H.
- Wildlife Ecology