Ecological studies on coccoid bacteria in a pine forest soil—I. Classification

Abstract

Two hundred and nine coccoid bacteria, most of which were yellow pigmented, were isolated from the A and C horizons of a pine forest soil. One hundred and seventy nine tests were carried out on all of these bacteria and the overall similarities between them calculated using Sneath's similarity coefficient. Ninety per cent of the organisms could be allocated to seven principle clusters, each having high intra-group similarities of over 70 per cent. There were two Micrococcus clusters, one Staphylococcus cluster and four Arthrobacter clusters. Some of these clusters were associated with only one soil horizon while others occurred in both horizons.