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The World of Protozoa, Rotifera, Nematoda and Oligochaeta

Ref ID : 1728

Bjorn Sohlenius; Abundance, biomass and contribution to energy flow by soil nematodes in terrestrial ecosystems. OIKOS 34:186-194, 1980

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A review is made of quantitative estimations on abundance and biomass of nematode faunas from different ecosystems. A great dispersion of the values from different authors is probably to some extent caused by differences in the efficiency of the extraction methods. The mean values of numerical abundance for different types of ecosystems ranged from 7.6x10E5 m-2 for semideserts to 9.2x10E6 m-2 for temperate grasslands. The respiratory metabolism in more productive sites corresponded to an energy emittance of about 20-60 kcal m-2 and year whereas in cold or dry sites it amounted to 7-10 kcal m-2 and year. The contribution of nematodes to the total soil respiration is rather slight; probably in many cases under 1%. The accuracy of estimations on the total energy flow through the soil populations is discussed. Probably the microbial feeders have a high assimilation efficiency whereas the production efficiency is more varying depending upon the food supply which in the soil possibly often is quite scarce.