Microfauna refers to microscopic organisms that exhibit animal-like qualities. Microfauna are represented in the animal

Animal

Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...

 kingdom (e.g., nematode

Nematode

The nematodes or roundworms are the most diverse phylum of pseudocoelomates, and one of the most diverse of all animals. Nematode species are very difficult to distinguish; over 28,000 have been described, of which over 16,000 are parasitic. It has been estimated that the total number of nematode...

s, small arthropod

Arthropod

An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton , a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods are members of the phylum Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others...

s) and the protist

Protist

Protists are a diverse group of eukaryotic microorganisms. Historically, protists were treated as the kingdom Protista, which includes mostly unicellular organisms that do not fit into the other kingdoms, but this group is contested in modern taxonomy...

 kingdom (i.e., protozoans). This is in contrast to microflora.

Habitat

Microfauna are often associated with other microscopic organisms in a variety of habitats, notably in soil, in water, and in the bodies of larger organisms (including the human body). Some microfauna are sessile, meaning they attach to a substrate their entire lives and never move. Sessile microfauna fertilize their mates by releasing ciliated sperm, while they themselves stay put.

Role

One particular example of the role of microfauna can be seen in soil, where they are important in the cycling of nutrients in ecosystems. Soil microfauna are capable of digesting just about any organic substance, and some inorganic substances (such as TNT and synthetic rubber).

Cryptozoa

The microfauna are the least understood of soil life

Soil life

Soil life or soil biota is a collective term for all the organisms living within the soil.-Overview:In balanced soil, plants grow in an active and steady environment. The mineral content of the soil and its heartiful structure are important for their well-being, but it is the life in the earth that...

, due to their small size and great diversity. Many microfauna are members of the so-called cryptozoa

Cryptozoa

Cryptozoa is the collective name for the small animals that permanently live under conditions with high relative humidity. Many of them can be found in any sample of wet soil; a large part of the cryptozoa has not yet been identified by science....

, animals that remain undescribed by science. Out of the estimated 10-20 million animal species in the world, only 1.8 million have been given scientific names, and many of the remaining millions are likely microfauna, much of it from the tropics.

External links

The role of soil microfauna in Plant disease suppression. University of California