Soil Life Matters!
Created By RISC | 2 years ago
Last modified date : 2 years ago
We all love the birds, squirrels, butterflies, bees, and other interesting creatures we see in green spaces. You probably know about their value to the ecosystem too. But there are other critters doing an excellent job you probably know far less about…
Benthic animals, or soil fauna, are tiny creatures on the surface of the soil we sometimes can’t even see. Let's get to know them better.
Benthic creatures are classified by size into 3 groups:
• Macrofauna (>2.0mm) such as ants, termites
• Mesofauna (0.1– 2.0mm) such as mites, earwigs, silverfish
• Microfauna (<0.1 mm) such as rotifers, protozoae
They are also classed by what they eat, such as predator, shredder, decomposer, and herbivore.
Benthic animals play a crucial role in the environment, both directly and indirectly. They ingest organic matter, helping decomposers digest organic matter. They increase air and soil movement, creating a food web and keeping the soil fertile. Benthic animals are also bio-indicators that tell us about soil fertility.
Benthic animals might be small but they balance ecosystems. We’ll look at benthic animals in green spaces in urban developments in the next posts.
Story by Satayu Panjinda, Intern from Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University and Thanawat Jinjaruk, Senior Researcher, Environment Division and Urban Environmental & Biodiversity Engineer, RISC
References:
Chulalongkorn University
Carrillo, Y., Ball, B. A., Bradford, M. A., Jordan, C. F. and Molina, M. 2011. Soil fauna alter the effects of litter composition on nitrogen cycling in a mineral soil. Soil Biology and Biochemistry. 43(7): 1440–1449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2011.03.011
Nielsen, U. N. 2019. Soil fauna assemblages: Global to local scales. Cambridge University Press.
Swift, M. J., Anderson, J. M. and Heal, O. W. 1979. Decomposition in terrestrial ecosystems. Berkeley: University of California Press.