ABSTRACT
The determination of soil microbial biomass can be extremely valuable for process studies
because of the time dependence of microbially mediated reactions. The mineralization of
elements such as carbon and nitrogen and the degradation of many (organic) chemicals have
kinetics that depend upon the concentration of substrate and the physicochemical soil
environment, and require microbial biomass as a reactive agent. If rapid methods for biomass
determinations were reliable and were not influenced by changing soil conditions, the effect
of microbial biomass on the kinetics of mineralization, chemical degradation, and nutrient
uptake could be determined.
