The soil food web

As with the human food chain the soil food web contains a community of interdependent organisms.

What we think of as soil is actually a rich web of interconnected effective microorganisms. Healthy soil is bursting with life, including tiny bacteria, algae, fungi and protozoa, larger organisms like nematodes and all the way up to visible organisms such as earthworms, insects and plants. Find out more about these soil organisms here. Each member of the soil food web plays a specific role within the community.

The movement and life cycle of these organisms allows nutrients to be cycled throughout the soil, creating a nutrient dense environment for plants to thrive in. A healthy soil food web means there is constant access to an abundance of nutrients for effective microorganisms.

When a soil food web is full of effective microorganisms and they are in the right balance, the soil is able to fix more atmospheric nitrogen and nutrients, decompose organic matter and retain more water. Healthy soil needs a balance of different effective microorganisms. Intensive agriculture has disrupted this balance with the use of machinery, which disturbs and compacts the soil, and chemicals which destroy many essential organisms.