A Comparison of the Microbiological Profile of the Soil on Two Sides of a Valley

The north side of a valley is forested with a mixture of coniferous and non-coniferous trees, while the south side is arable land, primarily cultivated for malting barley. Analysis was based on ‘total viable counts’ together with a simple classification using colony morphology and pigmentation, together with cellular morphology (296). The pH (10% w/v in distilled water) was also measured.