Effects of Key Soil Organisms on Nutrient Dynamics in Temperate Agroecosystems

Abstract

Summary Soil organisms are a diverse group that can influence the nutrient dynamics in temperate agroecosystems profoundly. Many organisms interact in a symbiotic or mutualistic way with plants, and these relationships have co-evolved, permitting plants and soil organisms to flourish in the soil environment. Numerous controlled lab or small plot-scale studies have demonstrated that soil organisms can mobilize or transfer substantial quantities of nutrients to crops, in relationship to crop requirements. However, the simple scaling up of such results to explain conditions on a large field scale is very much constrained by a lack of information on the spatio-temporal distribution of soil organisms in temperate agroecosystems. The numbers, diversity and activity of soil organisms in temperate agroecosystems are affected by agricultural management practices such as tillage operations, but our knowledge of the key organisms or groups of organisms that contribute to nutrient cycling and crop production under different sets of management practices is limited. Better management of nutrients in temperate agroecosystems requires better knowledge of soil biota, their effects on nutrient cycling and their contribution to crop production.