Microbial biomass and microbial respiration

Both microbial biomass and microbial respiration are considered efficient indicators of soil health. Soil respiration is the measure of the carbon dioxide produced by the microbes in a given weight of soil while microbial biomass is the measure of the mass of microbes- both active and dormant. Microbial biomass (MB) is an excellent predictor of soil health because the size of the microbial population correlates with the available nutrients in the soil.

People often assume a high respiration rate is good because it means there is a lot of microbial activity occurring. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean the soil is healthy. Microbes in a low pH or toxic soil have to work harder, and therefore their respiration rate is higher. High respiration rates can indicate an unstable microbial population, which for example, can be seen after excessive tillage occurs.

Excessive decomposition of SOM can temporarily increase microbial respiration and cause a loss of stored soil carbon and other mineral nutrients, allowing for the increased production of CO2. This means the microbes won’t be able to nourish the plant and build soil structure as needed. Adoption of less invasive management practices, such as select-till and reduced chemical fertilizers can reduce CO2 emissions from agricultural soils by retaining soil organic matter. Testing for both initial respiration and long term microbial biomass population can tell you if the priming worked and if the increase in microbial activity led to increased soil microbial biomass and therefore increased soil health and fertility.

On the road!

Our soil scientist, Marisa, recently attended the Acres USA Eco-Ag Conference in Covington, Kentucky.

Marisa had the pleasure of connecting with farmers, educators, and companies from all around the country who are passionate about mitigating our climate crisis through regenerative agriculture practices.

The conference kicked off with two days of educational workshops hosted by a range of regenerative ag experts including John Kempf and Rick Clark. From the trade show, to book signings, to keynote speaker presentations, there was no shortage of things to do all week.

The microBIOMETER® booth was situated between Ozark Organics, an organic feed milling company, and Organic Gem, an organic fish fertilizer company. Luckily, we weren’t too far from Hiwasse Products, where our long-time customer, Jesse Wiser, gifted us some homemade vermicompost and Johnson-Su compost, which we used for our microBIOMETER® kit demonstrations.

Throughout the conference attendees had the opportunity to connect with other farmers and soil enthusiasts, which is when Marisa had the pleasure of connecting with another one of our customers, Laurie Mann, owner of the American Bio Char Company, and her team.

It came as no surprise that Dr. James White had the room filled for his presentation on the last day of the conference. He presented his latest research on plant root-microbe interactions and took the time to answer endless questions on his findings. We were touched that James included a shoutout to our late founder Dr. Judy, during his talk.

The conference ended with us awarding raffle winner Lucas Hubbard with a microBIOMETER® Starter Kit. Thank you to everyone who stopped by our booth, we sold out of all the test kits we brought with us to the show!