Role of Soil Organisms in Modification of their Environment, Nutrient Cycling and Soil Formation

Dear Colleagues,

Soil organisms play a principal role in modification of their environment, nutrient cycling and soil formation. These effects can be achieved by contribution of soil biota to food webs which facilitates mineralization of soil organic matter and release of nutrients. Many soil organisms contribute to processes of nutrient transformation for other means connected to energy metabolism. Beside these processes related to energy metabolism, Soil organisms contribute to formation of soil structure and build-up of soil aggregates which, when accumulated, may contribute to formation of soil layers and eventually alter conditions of the whole soil profile. An important feature of these functions of soil biota is the interaction of organisms which vary in size in several orders of magnitudes. This interaction among an extremely variable range of organisms varies in space and time and upscaling this interaction to large spatio-temporal scales often brings another layer of complexity. The subject of this special issue is to cover all the above mentioned aspects of nutrient cycling and soil structure formation and modification affected by soil biota. In particular, we are interested in understanding the mechanisms based on the interaction among soil organisms at various spatio-temporal scales.

Prof. Dr. Jan Frouz
Dr. Veronika Jílková
Guest Editors

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