ABSTRACT
Soil architecture deals with the spatial distribution and heterogeneity of the different components or properties of soils. Excrements of soil fauna are partly or completely composed of organic matter. The occurrence, distribution of organic matter in relation to the soil architecture thus depends on a number of processes. The chapter focuses on the lower part of the chain, dealing with the processes driving the dynamics of soil heterogeneity. Soil architecture is the dynamic result of abiotic and biotic factors and processes. In non-cultivated land, the dynamics of heterogeneity in soil architecture are mainly governed by the weather regulating physical aggregate formation and biological processes. Sessile soil fauna, even if numerous, may have less impact on the soil architecture than mobile species, which always move around in search for food, protection or oviposition sites. The organic matter together with the fine-grained mineral material becomes conversed into shaped organo-mineral excrements produced by small soil fauna, chiefly microarthropods such as enchytraeids and collembola.
