Number of microbial species contained in one gram of soil

Range 2,000 to 50,000 Species
Organism Microbes
Reference Zhili He, Joy D. Van Nostrand, Ye Deng and Jizhong Zhou, Development and applications of functional gene microarrays in the analysis of the functional diversity, composition, and structure of microbial communities, Frontiers of Environmental Science & Engineering in China Volume 5, Number 1, 1-20, DOI: 10.1007/s11783-011-0301-y p.1 right column
Primary Source [1] Torsvik V, Øvreås L, Thingstad T F. Prokaryotic diversity— magnitude, dynamics, and controlling factors. Science, 2002, 296(5570): 1064–1066 [2] Roesch L F, Fulthorpe R R, Riva A, Casella G, Hadwin A K, Kent A D, Daroub S H, Camargo F A, Farmerie W G, Triplett E W. Pyrosequencing enumerates and contrasts soil microbial diversity. The ISME Journal, 2007, 1(4): 283–290 [3] Schloss P D, Handelsman J. Toward a census of bacteria in soil. PLoS Computational Biology, 2006, 2(7): e92 [4] Hong S H, Bunge J, Jeon S O, Epstein S S. Predicting microbial species richness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2006, 103(1): 117–122 [5] Curtis T P, Sloan W T, Scannell J W. Estimating prokaryotic diversity and its limits. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2002, 99(16): 10494– 10499 [6] Gans J, Wolinsky M, Dunbar J. Computational improvements reveal great bacterial diversity and high metal toxicity in soil. Science, 2005, 309(5739): 1387–1390PubMed ID12004116, 18043639, 16848637, 16368757, 12097644, 16123304
Comments It has been estimated that one gram of soil contains 2000 to 50000 microbial species [primary sources 1–5] and even up to millions of species [primary source 6].
Entered by Uri M
ID 107286