Soil Sensor Technology: Life within a Pixel

Abstract

S oil organisms are the catalysts that link elemen- tal exchange among the lithosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere. Understanding the rates of these exchanges, and the sequestration of elements within any pool, is becoming increasingly crucial to understanding soil processes and to sustainable management of local processes that are linked to the global climate. Indeed, scaling may be the single most difficult task in the study of soil ecological processes. The nutrient transformations that take place on the surfaces of soil particles, roots, and soil microbes must be defined and scaled up for managing soil nutrient and energy transformation at the ecosystem level.