Re: [compost_tea] tropical soils

From: <soilfoodweb_at_aol.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Jul 2004 20:25:15 -0400
Tropical systems can have a great deal more insect biomass than is present = in temperature systems.  We need to look at these ratios.

Andy Moldenke has documented that some healthy mature grasslnads have up to= 200,000 individual microarthropods per square meter, down to 5 inch depth.=   Turn this into biomass, and you are dealing with an insect biomass a= bout a tenth of that of the bacterial biomass. 

In tropical soils, ants can contribute about 0.2 ug biomass per gram of soi= l, when averaged out over the whole field.  But, if you calculate on t= he basis of the small are athey actually occupy, their biomass can be equal= to that of fungi. 

Consider that in a prairie soil in Kansas, the microbial biomass in the soi= l is equal to something like 2.5 buffalo standing on the same area.  <= BR>
Yep, the microbes in the soil are more "important" biomass-wise t= han buffalo. 

Ah, but each kind of organism has it 's function, different from the others= .  The grat plains would not be the great plains without buffalo, or t= he bacteria, or the fungi. 

It takes the WHOLE village workng together to make it a village. 

So lets go over the relative increase of biomass as we go from early stages= (weeds) to mature prairie to old growth forest.

Relatively speaking, bacterial biomass is about the same in a grasslands, a= nd in an old growth forest.  What really changes is fungal biomass.&nb= sp; Bacteria go from 100 ug, to 300 ug, for example over that gradient, whi= le fungi go from 5 ug, to 5000 ug, and even higher in really healthy old gr= owth systems. 

OK?

>Doc,  you wrote<  But bacterial biomass is highest of any ecosys= tem in
>these old growth forests.  It's just that fungal biomass is much, muc= h
>higher. >  This doesn't make sense. Did you mean the bacterial N= UMBERS
>are higher but the biomass of fungi is higher?
>
>
>Another question:  In tropical forests the numbers of ants is like >nothing I have ever seen. How do their biomass numbers compare in that<= BR> >situation....if you know, sorry!
>
>Cheers,
>
>JEFF L
>
--
Elaine Ingham
President, Soil Foodweb Inc.
SFI Corvallis, OR
SFI Port Jefferson, NY
SFI Lismore, NSW, Australia
SFI Hilversum, The Netherlands
SFI Cambridge, New Zealand
SFI Culiacan, Mexico
SFI Jerome, Idaho
http://www.soilfoodweb.com


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Received on Thu Jul 29 2004 - 21:03:00 EDT

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