1. Soil ecosystem

Historically studied for its physical and chemical properties, the importance of soil as a habitat for biodiversity has only recently been recognized. For a long time, soil was thought to be an inert support into which plant roots plunged to extract the elements necessary for their development, with the exception of carbon. Pioneering work on soil biology dates back to the 19th century, with the first naturalist studies carried out by zoologists seeking to establish soil fauna inventories based on newly-developed sampling methodologies such as the Berlese apparatus (named after its inventor Antonio Berlese). The great diversity of soil organisms began to be revealed... However, this work could not yet be called "soil ecology", as it did not take into account the role of organisms or the interactions between these organisms...