An evaluation of the substrate-induced respiration method

Microbial decomposition of skeletal muscle tissue (Ovis aries) in a sandy loam soil at different temperatures

“…Soil microbial biomass C (C mic ) was estimated in soils harvested on day 21 and day 42 using the substrate induced respiration (SIR) technique (Anderson and Domsch, 1978) with some modifications by Lin and Brookes (1999): glucose was added to the soil in solution in order to calibrate the soil to 95% WHC. Soil water content can have a great effect on SIR rate (West and Sparling, 1986) and, therefore, 95% WHC was chosen to allow for the distribution of glucose throughout the soil matrix.…”

“…Soil water content can have a great effect on SIR rate (West and Sparling, 1986) and, therefore, 95% WHC was chosen to allow for the distribution of glucose throughout the soil matrix. No problems associated with the limitation on the availability of O 2 were anticipated as a 110% WHC has been successfully used (Lin and Brookes, 1999). Preliminary testing demonstrated that the peak flush of microbial CO 2 occurred after 2.5 h of incubation at 22 °C.…”

Body size, energy consumption and allometric scaling: a new dimension in the diversity?stability debate

“…For spherical microorganisms with body volume from 0.1 to 10 3 m 3 the biomass per gram soil increases consistently with body volume by one to two orders of magnitude depending on soil type (Lin and Brookes, 1999).…”

“…This pattern, often referred to as the biomass equivalence rule (Damuth, 1994;Polishchuk, 1994), B ≡ DM ∝ M 0 , is also supported by studies of soil animals over a wide range of body sizes (Ghilarov, 1967). On the other hand, size-class biomass of other animals, e.g., tropical arthropods or microscopic soil organisms (Lin and Brookes, 1999), was shown to grow conspicuously with body size.…”

Development of Substrate Induced Respiration (SIR) Method Combined with Selective Inhibition for Estimating Fungal andBacterial Biomass in Humic Andosols

“…Although this technique is already used widely in soil microbial studies, it does have some limitations. Inhibitors may affect a nontarget population, e.g., some fungal inhibitors suppress or stimulate bacterial growth (Johnson et al, 1996;Velvis, 1997;Lin and Brookes, 1999a). Soil texture may also affect the apparent resistance to inhibitors (Coleman and Crossley, 1996).…”