Talk:Table of soil life

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Fungi have no chlorophyll, and are not able to photosynthesise, therefore they are heterotrophic, meaning that, like animals, they require an external source of energy rather than being able to produce their own.

Heterotrophic mean they need an *organic* source of carbon, rather than being able to transform mineral source, such as CO2, to produce their own organic matter. This is also true for animals of course, but energy needs and carbon needs should not be confused.

Moreover, I would say all organisms require an *external* source of energy to develop (sigh ;-)). But some are able to use our sun energy, some have to rely on oxydo-reduction reactions. Still, it's always external...

Cheers

user:anthere

thanks for your correctionsquercus robur

This page could use quite a few further expansions - nematodes, soil mites, rotifers, earthworms, pseudoscorpions, ants, and isopods are all significant parts of soil life. Heck, one can even argue that moles contribute to soil aeration and ecology. I'm not sure whether those should all be expanded upon here, or if the listing of links to these articles given in the overview is sufficient. User:Decapod73 - edit: seems I need to make myself a page!

Potential source leads

• http://www.eeescience.utoledo.edu/Faculty/Neher/Soil%20Ecology/history.htm

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Good soil consists of 93% mineral and 7% bio organic substances. The bio organic parts are 85% humus,10% roots, and 5% edaphon.

Edaphon is itself a "world" of life and consists of microbes, fungi, bacteria, earthworms, micro fauna, and macro fauna as follows:

• The Edaphon consists of:

1. fungi/algae .........................40%
2. bacteria/actinomycetes.....40%
3. Earthworms.........................12%
4. Macro fauna........................ 5%
5. micro/mesofauna............... 3%

• http://earthsci.org/processes/geopro/soil/soil.html

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Merge with Soil biology

I think that the proposal has all the sense. I think also that the merged article should avoid going into much detail of aspects covered in other articles, like the Nitrogen cycle. Auró (talk) 21:19, 5 April 2011 (UTC)

It seems reasonable that Soil life should be about living beings. On the other hand, there is a related subject, soil organic matter, that besides living beings includes material that has evolved from these beings, but is with no life. Based on this consideration, I think that the more useful merge would be to incorporate Soil life into Soil biology, that would cover Soil life and its activity to generate organic matter.Auró (talk) 12:42, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

• I merged most of the information to soil biology. Should the "soil life table" be merged to, or should it be moved into its own list? If you have a good idea about it go ahead. Sidelight12 ^Talk 06:21, 26 December 2012 (UTC)

• The table is still on the page, but commented as ignore. Sidelight12 ^Talk 06:32, 26 December 2012 (UTC)