Continuous-Flow Method for the Study of Microbiological Processes in Soil Samples

Abstract

THE existing means of studying microbiological processes in soil samples are derived from the classical methods of microbiological cultivation. They are based on the principle of a single enrichment of the soil with the appropriate substrate. The processes occurring there can be expressed by a curve characteristic of microbiological processes in closed systems. Even if these methods have produced some valuable results they have certain disadvantages, for example, the usually high initial substrate concentration and the fact that the exhaustion of the substrate causes the termination of the cycle. The first disadvantage of these classical methods of soil microbiology can be removed by the percolation technique^1,2, which makes it possible to supply the soil sample at a considerably lower concentration than required for batch cultures. But even in this case the substrate concentration undergoes changes in the course of the experiment and is exhausted in the end.