Practical 2: Carry out practical work to study the soil ecosystem,

soil biota and food web

Introduction:
An ecosystem consists of a community of organisms together with their physical
environment. Ecosystems contain biotic or living, parts, as well as abiotic factors, or non-
living parts. Biotic factors include plants, animals, and other organisms. Abiotic factors
include rocks, temperature, and humidity. Ecosystem can be of different sizes and can be
marine, aquatic, or terrestrial. Tide pools, the ponds left by the ocean as the tide goes out,
are complete, tiny ecosystems. Tide pools contain seaweed, a kind of algae, which
uses photosynthesis to create food. Herbivores such as abalone eat the
seaweed. Carnivores such as sea stars eat other animals in the tide pool, such as clams
or mussels. Tide pools depend on the changing level of ocean water. Some organisms, such
as seaweed, thrive in an aquatic environment, when the tide is in and the pool is full. Other
organisms, such as hermit crabs, cannot live underwater and depend on the shallow pools
left by low tides. In this way, the biotic parts of the ecosystem depend on abiotic factors. In
ecosystems, both matter and energy are conserved. Energy flows through the system and
usually flows from light to heat, while the matter is recycled.

Soil biota consist of the microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, archaea and algae), soil
animals (protozoa, nematodes, spiders, insects and earthworms) and plants living all or part
of their lives in or on the soil or pedosphere. Millions of species of soil organisms exist but
only a fraction of them have been cultured and identified. Microorganisms are members of
the soil biota but are not members of the soil fauna. The soil fauna is the collection of all the
microscopic and macroscopic animals in a given soil. Soil animals can be conventionally
grouped by size classes: macrofauna (enchytraeids, earthworms, macroarthropods),
mesofauna (microarthropods., mites, collembolan) and microfauna (protozoa, nematodes).
The size of a soil organism can restrict its location in the soil habitat. Smaller members of the
microfauna like nematodes are basically aquatic organisms that live in the thin water films or
capillary pores of aggregates preying or grazing on other aquatic microfauna such as
amoebas. Soil protozoa are also land-adapted members of aquatic microfauna that can
dwell in water films in field moist soils. Water films are created by the adsorption of water to
soil particles. Soil has a direct effect on the environmental conditions, habitat and nutrient
sources available to the soil biota. The term pedosphere is often used interchangeably with
soil and captures the concept that the soil is a habitat where the integration of spheres
occurs. These spheres include the lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and the
biosphere. Numerous biogeochemical processes regulated by soil biota occur in the

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pedosphere. Studies of the pedosphere range in scale from the field (km) to a soil aggregate
(µm to nm).

Trophic levels in a soil food web.

Interactive processes linking the pedosphere with the

atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere.
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 Soil biota are organized into highly complex community food webs, which describe
the trophic interactions within the ecosystem A feature of the soil food web is the existence
of two separate (but interconnected) energy and nutrient channels; bacterial and fungal-
based. The bacterial-based channel occurs in a continuous water film and generally involves
protozoa and bacterivorous nematodes at the second trophic level. The fungal-based energy
channel does not require a water film and often involves mites and Collembola at the second
trophic level. A greater proportion of bacterial productivity and biomass is consumed by the
second trophic level than is the case for fungi and as a result, there is a more rapid cycling of
nutrients. The bacterial channel is favoured by easily degradable substrates with a narrow
C:N ratio such as herbaceous rather than woody vegetation or in the rhizosphere compared
to the bulk soil. The fungal channel is favoured by recalcitrant and woody litter with a wide
C:N ratio. Indeed, fungi are able to degrade cellulose, hemicellulose, and particularly lignin,
and have the ability to form hyphal bridges between litter particles of different nutrient status
and then relocate nutrients.

Purpose:

To identify the type and number of macrofauna found in different types of soil.

Hypothesis:

Different types of soil contain different macrofauna.

Variables:

Manipulating variable: Type of soil, volume of soil.

Responding variable: Total number of macrofauna, types of macrofauna.

Constant variable: Techniques used to collect macrofauna, Temperature of environment.

Materials and apparatus:

100 ml beaker, spatula, magnifying glass, filter funnel, filter paper, litmus paper, forceps,
petri dish, Tullgren funnel, label paper, wire mesh, slide, basin, plastic bag, adhesive tape,
rubber rolls, 4% ethanol.

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Procedure:

1. Collect the leaf litter (O Horizon) and topsoil (A Horizon) samples – not deeper than 3
cm, from two different areas.
2. Choose grass, native plants from different species of trees.

The picture shows the location that the first soil

sample is collected which is from the papaya
planting area near chemistry laboratory.
3. Put this sample in the plastic bag or container, cover it, and label the name of the
area that collected the soil.

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4. After returning to the laboratory, mix the soil with leaf litter taken from the same area.
5. The mixture is then poured into the Tullgren funnel.

6. Leave it for two days and remove the beaker which is containing ethanol.

7. This procedure is carried out to the soil samples taken from the second region.

Picture above shows the location that

second soil sample is collected which is
from the farm near the library.

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 8. Identify all the organisms and divide them into groups (group with no legs – worms;
group with eight legs – spiders).
9. Calculate and record the number of the organisms in each group.
10. Record in the table and calculate the number or percentage of the organisms, beside
use other reasonable ways to present the data.
11. Compare the data from two different location.

Results and Discussion:

Soil Sample 1

Group with Number of Percentage of Group with Number of Percentage of

no legs organisms organisms eight legs organisms organisms
Earthworm 2 2 Ants 1 1
x 100% = x 100% =
3 3
67% 33%

Soil Sample 2

Group with Number of Percentage of Group with Number of Percentage of

no legs organisms organisms eight legs organisms organisms
Earthworm 0 0 Ants 1 1 x 100% = 100%

Through the result from soil sample 1, we can find out that there is an ant contained
in the ethanol solution. In the ethanol, we cannot find the present of earthworms, but we can
find the earthworms in the soil that contained in the Tullgren funnel. We poured out the soil
in the Tullgren funnel for calculating the number of organisms in it. Some organisms such as
earthworm could not passed through the wire mesh into the ethanol because this organism
has bigger size compare to the other organism. Its big size causes it cannot easily pass
through the wire mesh placed between funnel and the rubber roll. While in the soli sample 2,
we found that there is only an ant contained in the ethanol. There is no earthworm contained
in the soil that filled in the Tullgren funnel. In my opinion, both samples of soil have different
types of organisms are due to the condition of the soil in both locations are different. For
example, the humidity of the soil sample in the farm near the library is lower than the
humidity of soil sample in front of chemistry laboratory. The higher humidity of the soil
causes the percentages of biotic or living organisms are greater. Thus, there are earthworms
been found in the soil from area near the chemistry laboratory. There are papaya trees
planted at the area in front of chemistry laboratory shows that the soil is more fertile compare

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to the soil at the farm area near the library which has only a few small plants are planted.
Therefore, more living organisms such as earthworms and ants can be found at that area.

There are some precautions that we have to take note during carrying out this
experiment. First is, we have to be more careful when setting up the Tullgren funnel. The
Tullgren funnel has to clip tightly and properly by using the tripod stand to prevent the funnel
from falling down during the experiment. Besides that, we have to place the wire mesh in
between the Tullgren funnel and the rubber rolls. This is to prevent the soil from sliding down
from the Tullgren funnel into the ethanol through the rubber rolls and ensure that there is no
other mixture to be added in the ethanol so that the result recorded is not affected. However,
there is also a disadvantage by placing the wire mesh between the funnel and the rubber
roll. The disadvantage is, the bigger size of living organisms such as earthworm cannot be
passed through the mesh and slode down into the ethanol. Thus, it is important to use the
wire mesh wisely or we can replace the wire mesh with the leaf litter that we have collected
as the base in the funnel. This can help to prevent the soil from sliding down easily and thus
help to ensure the bigger size of living organisms can easily pass through the funnel into the
ethanol.

Conclusion:

Soil, or the pedosphere, is a heterogeneous environment containing limited

resources widely dispersed in space and time across a continuum of ecosystems ranging in
size from the microscopic to landscape scale. The interaction of soil organisms within food
webs results in the release, transformation and relocation of elements throughout the
pedosphere by several biogeochemical processes. Soil organisms influence soil structure by
physically binding soil particles together and increasing the number and size of aggregates
that provide habit for micro-fauna. Visualizing all the interactions of gases, water, organisms
and organic and inorganic constituents in an aggregate at the "microscale" provides us with
a "glimpse of the universe" in a gram of soil.

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Reference:

Fortuna, A. (2012) The Soil Biota. Nature Education Knowledge 3(10):1

Francois, J. (2015, April). The Soil As An Ecosystem. Biology and Fertility of Soils ,
51(6):645-648. Retrieved from ResearchGate:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/276090499_The_soil_as_an_ecosystem

Margado, R. G. (2018). Soil Ecosystem. Retrieved from ScienceDirect:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/soil-ecosystem

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