DIFFERENTIATION OF SOIL MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES BU MULTISUBSTRATE TESTING

Microbial communities of five zonal soil types were characterized by a method of multisubstrate testing using tetrazolium violet as an indic ator of substrate consumption. The results were analyzed by a method o f principal components and cluster analysis. Microbial communities wer e shown to differ depending upon the type of soil. The fast, simple, a nd efficient multisubstrate analysis is suggested as a convenient meth od for determining the functional structure of microbial communities i n nature.