0000000000426981
AUTHOR
Wilfred Otten
Interconnectivity of habitats in soil: combining X-ray micro tomography and thin sectioning to reveal fungal-soil structure interactions
International audience; The extreme heterogeneity and interconnectivity of the 3-dimensional pore space within soil makes it a unique habitat for the diverse microbial population and has a pivotal role in microbial interactions. Manipulation and quantification of the 3-dimensional pore space and the spatial distribution of micro-organisms is therefore essential if we are to fully understand microbial interactions. Here we pack soil microcosms at different bulk-densities to manipulate soil structure and use x-ray micro tomography and soil thin sections to analyse the effect on the connectivity of the pore volume and on fungal exploration.
Soilμ3d project: emergent properties of soil microbial functions from 3d modelling and spatial descriptors of pore scale heterogeneity
International audience; The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by improving the efficiency of agricultural systems through robust ecologically-based management practices represents the most important challenge facing agriculture. Models are needed to evaluate the effects of soil properties, climate, and agricultural management practices on soil carbon and on the nitrogen transformations responsible for GHG emissions. Models of Carbon and nitrogen cycles in soils need improvements so they can provide more accurate and robust predictions. They use empirical functions which account for the different environmental factors that affect microbial functions. However, these types of function have…