Advanced Research in Soil Microbial Functional Groups

The studies on functional groups were the earliest applied in the study of plant ecology,and then in microbial ecology.Microbial functional groups were the collectivity of microorganism with specific biological function in the material flow,and this classification is not relative to the principal of taxonomy but only because of the same or similarity of biological function,such as nitrogen-fixation microbial functional community,phosphoros-solubilizing microbial functional community,ammonifiers microbial functional community,cellulose-decomposition microbial functional community and so on.There are many domestic and abroad reports related to microbial functional groups,referring to ecological system of grassland,farm field and forest ecosystem.The method to study microbial function is to apply to choose culture agar for separating and culturing.The biomass of microbial functional groups can be determined by measuring the amount of substute using or carbon dioxide from respiration,or the PCR techniques are used to describe the microbial functional genes.The studies on microbial functional groups have important significances for industry,agriculture,protecting environment,medicine and gene engineering.