The Soil Food Web.

A figure I made for a presentation during my work as a Soil Scientist at Fera Science Ltd.

The different colours represent different trophic levels within the soil food web.

  • Basal - living plant tissues or dead organic matter

  • Blue (second) - microbes, decomposers and plant parasites that feed on food sources from the basal level (bacteria, fungi, root parasitic nematodes)

  • Yellow (third) - nematodes and microarthropods that feed on bacteria and fungi (protozoa, fungal feeding mites, bacterial/fungal feeding nematodes and springtails)

  • Pink (fourth) - larger microarthropods and nematodes, which eat the smaller ones (predatory mites, predatory and omnivorous nematodes)

  • Green (fifth) - higher level predators, eg. beetles, spiders, top level predators, eg. birds

Adapted from AHDB.

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