Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Geomicrobiology: relative roles of bacteria and fungi as geomicrobial agents
- 2 Integrated nutrient cycles in boreal forest ecosystems – the role of mycorrhizal fungi
- 3 Fungal roles in transport processes in soils
- 4 Water dynamics of mycorrhizas in arid soils
- 5 Integrating ectomycorrhizal fungi into quantitative frameworks of forest carbon and nitrogen cycling
- 6 Role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in carbon and nutrient cycling in grassland
- 7 The role of wood decay fungi in the carbon and nitrogen dynamics of the forest floor
- 8 Relative roles of bacteria and fungi in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon biodegradation and bioremediation of contaminated soils
- 9 Biodegradation and biodeterioration of man-made polymeric materials
- 10 Fungal dissolution and transformation of minerals: significance for nutrient and metal mobility
- 11 Fungal activities in subaerial rock-inhabiting microbial communities
- 12 The oxalate–carbonate pathway in soil carbon storage: the role of fungi and oxalotrophic bacteria
- 13 Mineral tunnelling by fungi
- 14 Mineral dissolution by ectomycorrhizal fungi
- 15 Lichen biogeochemistry
- 16 Fungi in subterranean environments
- 17 The role of fungi in carbon and nitrogen cycles in freshwater ecosystems
- 18 Biogeochemical roles of fungi in marine and estuarine habitats
- Index
- References
16 - Fungi in subterranean environments
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Geomicrobiology: relative roles of bacteria and fungi as geomicrobial agents
- 2 Integrated nutrient cycles in boreal forest ecosystems – the role of mycorrhizal fungi
- 3 Fungal roles in transport processes in soils
- 4 Water dynamics of mycorrhizas in arid soils
- 5 Integrating ectomycorrhizal fungi into quantitative frameworks of forest carbon and nitrogen cycling
- 6 Role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in carbon and nutrient cycling in grassland
- 7 The role of wood decay fungi in the carbon and nitrogen dynamics of the forest floor
- 8 Relative roles of bacteria and fungi in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon biodegradation and bioremediation of contaminated soils
- 9 Biodegradation and biodeterioration of man-made polymeric materials
- 10 Fungal dissolution and transformation of minerals: significance for nutrient and metal mobility
- 11 Fungal activities in subaerial rock-inhabiting microbial communities
- 12 The oxalate–carbonate pathway in soil carbon storage: the role of fungi and oxalotrophic bacteria
- 13 Mineral tunnelling by fungi
- 14 Mineral dissolution by ectomycorrhizal fungi
- 15 Lichen biogeochemistry
- 16 Fungi in subterranean environments
- 17 The role of fungi in carbon and nitrogen cycles in freshwater ecosystems
- 18 Biogeochemical roles of fungi in marine and estuarine habitats
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
Exploration of the microbial world got off to a slow start some 350 years ago, when Leeuwenhoek and his contemporaries focused their microscopes on very small life forms. It was not until about 20 years ago, however, that exploration of the world of intra-terrestrial microbes gathered momentum. Until then, it was generally assumed that life could not persist deep underground, out of reach of the sun and a photosynthetic ecosystem base. In the mid 1980s, the drilling of deep holes for scientific research started. Holes up to thousands of metres deep were drilled in hard as well as sedimentary rock, and up came microbes in numbers equivalent to what could be found in many surface ecosystems (Pedersen, 1993). The deep subterranean biosphere had been discovered.
Defining the boundary between the ground-surface biosphere and the subterranean biosphere is problematic: various scientists define it differently, and there is no general consensus. For our purposes the main criterion is that the subterranean biosphere begins where contact with the surface biosphere is lost. This lies beneath soil and root zones, beneath the ground-water table, and beneath sediment and crust surfaces. A long time should have elapsed since last surface contact, ‘long time’ in this respect being at least several decades, preferably hundreds of years or more. In our view it is not depth per se that defines a subterranean ecosystem; rather, it is the duration of isolation from the surface.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Fungi in Biogeochemical Cycles , pp. 377 - 403Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2006
References
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