Question

What are ways in which we are capable of evaluating the population density of soil nematodes, mites and the overall decomposition activity within the soil?

Answer 1

The nematode populations can be described by the Maturity Index (MI), a measure based on the ecological characteristics of nematode taxa. The mites in the soil were collected from several wild populations and allowed to mate for two generations in the laboratory before being placed in our standard microcosm population tubes. This periodically variable treatment was designed to represent seasonality as best as possible by having a 28-day cycle. The randomly variable treatment was designed to be entirely unpredictable with daily food provisions being chosen from a random distribution with a mean of two balls over a 56-day window, with a maximum daily provision of 12 balls. The rate of carbon dioxide production is commonly used to measure the activity in the soil. The traditional method of CO2 determination involves trapping CO2 in an alkali solution and then determining the carbondioxide concenindirectly by titration of the remaining alkali in the solution.