Biological Diversity
What it is: Biological biodiversity is the number of species in the soil or plant community, either at a particular time or over time (e.g. in a rotation). Most soils, except for highly disturbed or young soils, have inherent biological diversity.
Why it is important: Diversity is an important indicator because biological composition of the soil can affect nutrient and pest cycles, disease suppression and pollutant degradation, as well as development of soil structure. Soils have redundancy for organisms responsible for organic matter decomposition and nutrient cycling, making the minimum functional diversity to provide ecosystem services the important concept.
Specific problems that might be caused by (too little, too much etc.) are:
Too little: Susceptibility to pest infestation; inefficient nutrient cycling; poorly aggregated soils
Too much: Excessive competition with plant roots for nutrients
What you can do: You can improve the diversity in your soil ecosystem by increasing the diversity of planted crops, increasing field complexity (e.g. with grassed waterways), and reducing pesticide use.
For more information go to Soil Management Practices.
Ways that you can measure diversity include:
| Method | How Performed | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Nematode maturity index | ||
| Nematode fxn gr | ||
| Macroarthropods | ||
| Microbial diversity | ||
| Microfauna | ||
| Plant diversity | ||
| Temporal diversity | ||
| Habitat |
The different methods have different levels of accuracy and precision.