MICROBIAL DIVERSITY AS INDICATOR OF SOIL QUALITY

Abstract

Soil quality is an ample concept referring to the equilibrium between the chemical, physical and biological components of the soil. In order to evaluate soil quality it has been postulated the need of identifying indicatives parameters of soil conservation and/or degradation. Microorganisms are at the base of the food web and related with several ecological processes, therefore, microbial diversity is considered an important indicator of soil quality. This diversity is generally presented as indexes due to difficulties in assessing and interpreting its role within the ecosystem. Nevertheless, a new perspective is emerging due to the progresses of molecular biology, allowing the interpretation of structural and functional diversity of soil microorganisms in an easier and more sensitive way. Recently, important contributions to the study of microbial diversity, based on modeling frameworks have been reported and associated with soil quality. In this review we discuss the advances in the study of microbial diversity and its use as an indicator of soil quality.