Explanation of Micro-biology at the Soil Laboratory
Here we have an image of a fungal hyphae which is a long thread like structure. In the slide we measure the diameter and the length of the fungal strand to estimate how much bio mass is present.
Surrounding this fungal hyphae we have lots of other little dots which are bacteria and there is also some brown coloured material which is organic matter and other particular matter.
This is a picture of on top of a leaf surface where we are interested in the glowing parts which you can see on this image there are only a few little dots of some fungal spores and bacterial bodies. There are only a few little dots on this slide, to this leaf surface we applied a compost tea and then we measured and looked on the leaf surface after the application of the compost tea which is the following image - leaf > surface.
You can see that on this image in comparison with the previous image that there is a much better coverage or colonisation over the leaf surface. In particular you can see some fungal stands growing across the leaf surface covering it much better then the previous image.
This picture is of a special type of fungi called a Mycorrhizal fungi, what you can see here on this particular fungi that it penetrates through the route system of the plant forming the circular structures called vesicles and in these sights the plant will send sugars and nutrients to this vesicle to feed the fungi and the fungi will grow out from the route system accessing moisture and nutrients from the surrounding soil and piping that moisture and nutrients back to the route system; so it is symbiotic relationship in that way.
Here we have pictures of four different types of nematodes. The first on the top right is a parasitic nematode, you can see the structure and in his mouth is a little spear like structure that projects out of his mouth which punctures the plant route system. The nematode will the suck out the plant sugars to feed itself. He is the plant parasitic nematode or what we also might call it is the bad guy, he is the one that causes crop loss and disease whereas the picture in the top left is called a predatory nematode, he is much larger and fatter that actually eats other nematodes. You can see in the image he is in the process of swallowing another nematode so in this way it is how nature keeps balance between the good and the bad microbes. The predatory ones would consume the parasitic ones and keep their population in balance. We also look at other groups of nematodes, the bottom two images, these feed on bacteria and fungi for their energy. In the process of eating bacteria or fungi, nutrients are recycled, released and excreted from the nematode and then the plant can use the excreted nutrients for its own growth.
Here we have a graphical representation of different nutrient supplies that the crop is able to access. There are three pools of nutrients here, the total extractable or a very much long term nutrient supply, in the middle, the medium term supply, we have what we call the exchangeable fraction and lastly we have the soluble pool which is a short term supply to the crop. Nutrients will move through these different pools, they will begin their life in the total pool and by the activity of micro organisms or biology, you can see the arrow moving down, nutrients will move down into an exchangeable form and then again by the activity of the organisms or biology into the soluble/short term pool and from there they will then be absorbed by the route system. This is how nutrients become available and by the activity of micro organisms is a integral link between each of these phases and as a result making sure that we have biologically active soils and lots of micro organisms growing and present in our soils is very important for making sure that nutrients become available to our crops.
This is just a graphical representation of what we call the Soil Food Web which is a living food web underneath the ground of all organisms and how they interrelate and interact with each other. It basically has different levels of the Soil Food Web starting from the plants and the organic matter and basically the first group of micro organisms will consume that organic matter; the second level will consume those micro organisms and so one, working our way up the food chain. Essentially it is like a little fish eaten by a big fish eaten by another big fish with each step along the way moving up the higher levels of the Soil Food Web. Each time an organism is consumed by another organism or each time a micro organism dies, as its body decays or is consumed, nutrients are broken down and released again in a plant available form to feed the plant.
This image represents our philosophy and approach to farming and soil health which signifies that the soil chemical properties that carried the nutrients of the soil, the soil microable activity or that biological health of the soil and the physical nature of the soil are all very much interlinked with each other and they are all of equal importance to soil health, the equally contribute to influencing the health and productivity of our soils; a conventional approach often narrows down on the chemical component and really just focuses on that one area but in reality the physical and biological attributes of the soil can have quite a strong influence over that chemistry and as I said they are all of equal importance as each other so there should all be considered as a whole in a much more of a holistic way of viewing soil and soil health which is our philosophy.