Categories of soil biota
Microfauna
Size range 1-100 µm
Bacteria
100 billion cells from 10,000 species
Fungi
50 km of hyphae from 100’s of species
Protozoa
100,000 cells from 100’s of species
Mesofauna
Size range 100 µm - 2mm
Combined
1,000’s individuals from 100’s of species
Macro/Megafauna
Size range > 2mm
Combined
100’s individuals from 10’s of species
Source: S. Jeffery, C. Gardi, A. Jones, L. Montanarella, L. Marmo, L. Miko, K. Ritz, G. Peres, J. Römbke and W. H. van der Putten (eds.), 2010, European Atlas of Soil Biodiversity. European Commission, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.)