Comparison the methods of microbial biomass definition for the assessment of soil biological properties

For definition the microorganisms biomass besides the direct microscopic account various indirect chemical methods, such as are applied: substratum induced respiration, fumigation by pairs of chloroform and subsequent extraction, hydrolysis fluorescein diacetate and others. In the real work comparison of data received by different methods is made in the analysis of standard samples with known characteristics. It is established that all methods have restrictions and allow to define no more than 15-80% from the true biomass, and bacteria are allocated more fully, and microscopic fungi to lesser extent.