Reactivation of the microbial
population leads to increased levels of bacteria, and particularly of
fungal populations, which are principally responsible for the formation
of aggregates larger than 0.2mm (Andrade et al., 1998).
Positive, statistically significant correlations between the levels of
stable aggregates and protease (P < 0.01), -glucosidase (P < 0.05)
and phosphatase (P < 0.001) activities, soil respiration (P < 0.05) and
soil microbial biomass nitrogen (P < 0.001) were found, which suggests
that the reason for the increased aggregate stability after the
addition of residue is fundamentally microbiological.