Fungi and Bacteria in the Dark-Humus Forest Soil

Abstract

A comparative assessment of the pools of fungal and bacterial biomass in dark humus forest soil has been performed using luminescent microscopy and cascade filtration. Cascade filtration indicates that the bacterial biomass is compatible to the fungal biomass (31–54% for bacteria and 46–69% for fungi) in the upper horizons of investigated soil. However, in the lower horizons, the bacterial biomass predominates (up to 69% at the depth of 100 cm). Thus, the cascade filtration method has made it possible to refine data on the bacterial biomass in the soil and to show for the first time that the biomass of bacteria is compatible to the biomass of fungi in the upper soil horizons and exceeds fungal biomass in the lower horizons. This method provides for a more accurate assessment of both the number and the biomass of bacteria, which allows revising the opinion of many soil microbiologists on the significant prevalence of fungal biomass in soils.