Abstract
IT is well known that when a dried soil is moistened there is a burst of respiratory activity. Drying, in some way, renders a part of the soil organic matter soluble and it has been considered that the decomposition of this fraction by micro-organisms partly accounts for the high respiration-rates recorded. The composition of this soluble material has not been fully determined, but it has been shown to contain appreciable amounts of several amino-acids1. In these circumstances the development of a specialized zymogenous population might be expected. Indirect evidence for the existence of such a population has been provided by Chase and Gray2. They made a detailed analysis of the respiration of freshly moistened soils and concluded that their results could be best interpreted by assuming that two major microbial populations were involved, namely, one with a low rate of metabolism—the autochthonous population—and the other with a very high rate—the zymogenous population.
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References
Stevenson, I. L., Plant and Soil, 8, 170 (1956).
Chase, F. E., and Gray, P. H. H., Canad. J. Microbiol., 3, 335 (1957).
Birch, H. F., and Friend, M. T., Nature, 178, 500 (1956).
Jones, P. C. O., and Mollison, J. E., J. Gen. Microbiol., 2, 54 (1948).
Winogradsky, S., C.R. Acad. Sci., Paris, 178, 1236 (1924).
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GRIFFITHS, E., BIRCH, H. Microbiological Changes in Freshly Moistened Soil. Nature 189, 424 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/189424a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/189424a0
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