What is the role of microorganisms in nature and role of microorganisms in maintaining soil health?
The most significant effect of the microbes on earth is their ability to recycle the primary elements that make up all living systems, especially carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen. Primary production involves photosynthetic organisms which take up CO2 from the atmosphere and convert it to organic material. Soil microorganisms are responsible for most of the nutrient release from organic matter. When microorganisms decompose organic matter, they use the carbon and nutrients in the organic matter for their own growth. They release excess nutrients into the soil where they can be taken up by plants. Microorganisms such as bacteria and fungi play an important role in maintaining the soil fertility. Microbial action on dead organic matter releases nutrients in the soil thus raising the fertility status of the soil. Diazotrophic bacteria and cyanobacteria like Azotobacter, Bacillus, Beijerinckia, Clostridium, Klebsiella, Nostoc, Anabaena, Anabaenopsis, etc. raise the nitrogen status of soil by fixing atmospheric nitrogen.
In fact microorganisms help break down organic matter, they release essential nutrients and carbon dioxide into the soil, fix nitrogen and help transform nutrients into mineral forms that plants can use through a process as mineralization. Due to their close proximity to plant roots, soil microbes significantly affect soil and crop health. Some of the activities they perform include nitrogen-fixation, phosphorus solubilization, suppression of pests and pathogens, improvement of plant stress, and decomposition that leads to soil aggregation. There are five different types of soil microbes: bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, protozoa and nematodes. Each of these microbe types has a different job to boost soil and plant health. Microorganisms are five different types of soil microbes: bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, protozoa and nematodes. Each of these microbe types has a different job to boost soil and plant health. Microorganisms are found in almost every habitat present in nature, including hostile environments such as the North and South poles, deserts, geysers, and rocks. They also include all the marine microorganisms of the oceans and deep sea. Microorganisms are divided into seven types: bacteria, archaea, protozoa, algae, fungi, viruses, and multicellular animal parasites
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