ABSTRACT
Methods are available for characterizing the diversity of soil organisms to quantify their
numbers and biomass, and to identify these populations at a given time (Phillipson 1971).
Soil biota populations are never static with respect to diversity, population abundance, and
biomass. Soil biota can be influenced positively and negatively by land management and
land use thereby affecting both the extent of their activity in the soil and their dynamic
contributions to soil processes (Curry et al. 1998; Fox et al. 2003).
