The influence of ant biopores (Pheidole sp) on hydrological properties in agricultural environments in the Western Australian wheatbelt

The cloning of lux genes from luminescent marine bacteria into soil microorganisms provides a powerful means of studying the ecology of microbial inocula introduced into soil. This paper demonstrates the use of bioluminescence-marked inocula to study a range of ecological interactions in soil including microbial competition (competition for resources in soil caused reduced light output per cell), bacterial colonisation of the rhizosphere spatially characterised at the population and single cell level by Charge Coupled Device enhanced microscopy) and protozoa/ predation of microbial prey (ciliates selectively grazed bacterial cells with high light output activity). These examples illustrate the unique attributes of bioluminescence in microbial ecology to facilitate more effective manipulation of soil/plant/microbe interactions in farming systems.