ABSTRACT
In Chapter 8, we discussed organisms in the environment (soil biota) that might affect crop plants. We did not, however, treat these soil organisms as biotic factors; instead we considered them among the multiple aspects of the soil that combine to make soil a separate factor of the environment. Here in this chapter, we lay the groundwork for treating these living organisms as biotic factors in their own right (although the primary focus will be on plants as biotic factors).
