We receive this question often and the answer is no.
How do we know this? microBIOMETER® shows that soil removed from the earth and plants lose microbial biomass every day which we have confirmed with microscopic studies. The literature also confirms this.
Why is there confusion? Most of the microbes in soil are in the “dormant” state, they only wake up when stimulated by the plant or some other stimulus. For a long time people thought dormant microbes were dead. Now we know they have lost as much water as possible and encased themselves in a tough cocoon that can allow them to survive for up to thousands of years. microBIOMETER® measures these earth-colored dormant microbes.
What microbes are dormant? All soil microbes have the ability to go dormant. This allows them to survive drought, freezing, starvation, etc. Bacteria and fungi build tough spore walls to protect themselves. microBIOMETER® measures those spores.
In the winter when it is below freezing in New York, if we microscopically examine the microbes that are separated from soil using microBIOMETER® we see very few fungi but plenty of spores. In spring the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi spores will germinate and find a plant to colonize. In the Fall when roots are dying and decaying organic matter is present in the soil, we see a profusion of the saprophytic fungi that break down the tough vegetable matter. Bacteria can sporulate but even the bacteria that do not sporulate manage to wrap themselves in a tough outer coat by collecting clay and minerals in their gluey outer biofilm.
For more information on fungal spores, please visit mycorrhizas.info.
Types of fungal spores. The sizes vary from microscopic to visable..
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal (AMF) are dependent on the plant for their food, therefore, they die when the plant dies. Lucky for us before they die they form spores that can live a long time in the soil.
When we have looked at the soil from vineyards in winter it is filled with fungal spores. Pictured here of some of the types of AMF spores. The size of these spores can vary from microscopic to visible.
The spore starts growing when it receives a chemical message from a nearby plant. It has a day or two to reach the plant, enter the root and build a little space called an arbuscule where it can get food from the plant. If it fails at this, the fungi dies. This is why we like to plant seeds with AMF. The plant feeds the fungi because the fungi send out long hair like structures called hyphae that bring minerals and water back to the plant. In fact, scientists have recently shown that the fungi and the plant actually barter with one another, i.e. when phosphorus is low, the fungi gets more food for delivery of phosphorus.
microBIOMETER® measures both fungi and fungal spores as well as bacteria. The lab methods of PLFA and Carbon Fumigation do not adequately measure spores. Standard microscopy also does not adequately measure fungi.
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