The aim of our investigation was to measure the amount of carbon that is directly contributed by the soil fauna. Therefore a devide to measure the small amounts of CO2 released by soil invertebrates was developed. A commercially available portable photosynthesis measuring system, based on an infrared gas analyzer (IRGA) and designed to quantifity the CO2 uktake to single plant leaves, was modified in such a way that the CO2 production of soil invertebrates could be measured
