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Indirect Estimation of Microbial Biomass

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Methods in Soil Biology

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Abstract

In soils, microorganisms occur in great density and variety. Bacteria and fungi are the most abundant microorganisms, protozoans and algae occur in smaller numbers. The proportion of carbon biomass in the soil has been found to be 1–3% of the organic carbon (Sparling 1985). Investigations on cultivated soils showed that the proportion of the metabolically active microbial biomass is 1–5 and 2–8% of the organic matter in arable and grassland soils, respectively (Beck et al. 1992). Biomass determinations based on mathematical analysis of the respiration curves suggest that only 2–30% of the total biomass is metabolically active (Van de Werf and Verstraete 1987a,b).

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Authors
  1. H. Rössner
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  2. R. Kuhnert-Finkernagel
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  3. R. Öhlinger
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  4. T. Beck
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  5. A. Baumgarten
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  6. B. Heilmann
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Microbiology, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 25, A-6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Franz Schinner  & Rosa Margesin  & 

  2. Federal Office for Agrobiology, Wieningerstraße 8, A-4025, Linz, Australia

    Richard Öhlinger

  3. Institute for Soil Management, Federal Agency and Research Centre for Agriculture, Spargelfeldstraße 191, A-1220, Vienna, Austria

    Ellen Kandeler

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© 1996 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Rössner, H., Kuhnert-Finkernagel, R., Öhlinger, R., Beck, T., Baumgarten, A., Heilmann, B. (1996). Indirect Estimation of Microbial Biomass. In: Schinner, F., Öhlinger, R., Kandeler, E., Margesin, R. (eds) Methods in Soil Biology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60966-4_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60966-4_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-64633-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-60966-4

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