Question

What will happen if microbes in the soil get destroyed?

Answer 1

Microbes are single-celled unicellular organisms that can not be seen with the naked eye, they are also called microorganisms or microscopic organisms. The term 'microbes' refers to several different types of life forms with different sizes and characteristics e.g. bacteria, fungi, protists, viruses, etc. They may exist in their single-celled format or a colony of cells.

Complete answer:
Microbes are found in almost every habitat present in nature including extreme conditions such as the poles, thermal springs, deserts, etc. The human body contains trillions of microorganisms that exceed the number of human cells by 10 times. These microbes are helpful for the human body as they contribute to digestion, promote the development of the immune system, detoxify harmful chemicals, etc.
There are five different types of microbes present in soil: bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes, each of these microbes has a different job to boost soil and plant health.
Importance of different microbes in soil:
Bacteria: They help in the breakdown of organic matter and release nutrients from it for the uptake of plants.
They fix atmospheric nitrogen both symbiotically and asymbiotically.
Many microbes in the soil control the spread of pathogens for example the occurrence of some pathogenic fungi in the soil is decreased by certain protozoa that consume pathogenic fungi.
Microbes improve soil structure; some bacteria and fungi produce substances during organic matter decomposition that chemically and physically bind soil particles into micro-aggregates and improve soil structure.
Microbes are used in the treatment of water, to produce energy, in the food industry to produce cheese, alcoholic beverages, vinegar, etc.
Microbes help in the fixation of atmospheric nitrogen in the soil, this is achieved by diazotrophs. This can be achieved both symbiotically as well as symbiotically.
They act as an important source of carbon, energy, and nutrients for soil organisms.
Actinomycetes: these act as antibiotics for the plants.
Fungi: They help make nutrients available to plants, for example, mycorrhizae is a symbiotic association with roots of higher plants, it helps in the uptake of nutrients by the roots and provides sugars, amino acids, and other nutrients.
Protozoa: They eat up the bacteria which consume nutrients and help to release in the food chain.
Nematodes: These are microscopic worms that live around or inside the plants, some of them are predators and some are beneficial, they eat up pathogenic nematodes and secrete nutrients to the plants.
Microbes minimize soil erosion, increases organic matter content of the soil as organic matter is Some microbes are used as a model organism in research as an essential tool in biotechnology, biochemistry, genetics, and molecular biology example- 'yeast' is an important model organism in science since they are single eukaryotes that can be grown easily in large amount and are easily manipulated.
So if microbes of the soil get destroyed then the soil loses its fertility because microbes are the source of decomposers that decompose the dead matter. Also, the nutrient would not be available in the simplest forms and it would be difficult for the plants to take up that so ultimately it would hamper the plant growth and development, and there will be no plants on earth, as they will not able to take up nutrients and all organisms are dependent on each other through food chains and food web so it would indirectly affect all the organisms on the planet.

Note:
Not all microbes are beneficial, some are harmful as well. In humans they can cause infectious diseases such as flu and measles, some microbes may even cause noninfectious diseases like some forms of cancer and coronary heart disease, different diseases are caused by different types of microbes.