It is generally accepted that soil is a spatially heterogeneous
environment which also likely applies for soil moisture content,
the information on the extent of this heterogeneity at a small
scale and its consequences for microbial abundance and decomposition
are scarce. Particularly, the previous reports are almost
exclusively constrained to the soil organic horizon or deeper horizon
and omitted the litter horizon where most of the organic matter
decomposition is performed and/or only describe the moisture
effect on a very few selected soil properties. The aims of this paper
were to describe in detail the level of spatial variability of soil moisture
content in the L and H horizons of Quercus petraea forest soil
and to evaluate whether and to what extent the spatial differences
of soil moisture content affect soil microbial biomass expressed
as PLFA content and the activity of all the major extracellular
enzymes relevant for organic matter decomposition processes. Due
to the importance of fungi in decomposition processes in forestecosystems, fungal biomass was also independently quantified by
ergosterol content analysis.