The soil as an ecosystem (original) (raw)

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Abstract

Can soil be considered as just a component of terrestrial ecosystems and agro-ecosystems or is it an ecosystem in itself? The present piece of opinion suggests that we should refer to the original definition of the ecosystem given by Tansley and apply it to the soil viewed as a multi-scale assemblage of ecological systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

1. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, CNRS UMR 7179, 4 avenue du Petit Château, 91800, Brunoy, France
   Jean-François Ponge

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1. Jean-François Ponge

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Correspondence toJean-François Ponge.

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Ponge, JF. The soil as an ecosystem.Biol Fertil Soils 51, 645–648 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-015-1016-1

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• Received: 06 January 2015
• Revised: 25 March 2015
• Accepted: 07 April 2015
• Published: 21 April 2015
• Issue date: August 2015
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00374-015-1016-1

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