The effects of soil horizons and faunal excrement on bacterial distribution in an upland grassland soil.

The density and spatial location of bacteria were investigated within different horizons of an upland grassland soil before and after a liming treatment to increase the numbers of large soil fauna. Bacterial cells were located by image analysis of stained thin sections and densities calculated from these data. Excrement from macro- and meso-fauna was identified using micromorphology and the densities of bacteria on specific areas of excrement measured by image analysis. There were significant differences among horizons in the density of bacterial cells, with the minimum density found in the horizon with least evidence of earthworm activity, but no difference in density between the organic H and organo-mineral Ah horizons. Soil improvement by liming significantly increased bacterial densities in all three horizons, with the greatest increase found in the horizon with the smallest density before liming. There were no differences in bacterial density between areas dominated by excrement from earthworms and excrement from enchytraeids, although densities in both areas were significantly increased by liming. Variability in bacterial density at spatial scales of less than 1 mm was linked to the occurrence of excrement. Bacterial densities within areas of both types of excrement were significantly greater than those in the surrounding soil. However, the frequency distribution of the ratios of density in excrement to that in the soil was bimodal, with a majority of occurrences having a ratio near 1 and only some 20-30% having a much larger ratio. These variations can probably be explained by variations in the age of the excrement and its suitability as a substrate.

Determination of rhizosphere 13C pulse signals in soil thin sections by laser ablation isotope ratio mass spectrometry.

In grassland ecosystems, soil animals act as key soil engineers and architects. The diversity of soil animals is also a regulator of ecosystem carbon flow. However, our understanding of the link between soil animals, carbon fluxes and soil physical organisation remains poor. An integrated approach based on soil micromorphology and laser ablation stable isotope ratio mass spectrometry (LA-IRMS) was developed to provide spatially distributed data of pulse-derived (13)C tracer from roots in the soil environment. This paper describes the development and testing of a LA-IRMS (13)C/(12)C analytical method on soil thin sections as a means to determine the fate of root carbon derived from photosynthesis into soil. Results from this work demonstrated (1) that micro-scale delta(13)C (per thousand) analysis could be made on targeted features located within a soil thin section and (2) that LA-IRMS delta(13)C (per thousand) measurements made on samples obtained from (13)CO(2) pulse labelled plant-soil blocks confirmed the presence of recent photosynthates in the rhizosphere (1 and 4 weeks post-pulse).