![]() ![]() To analyze and predict these interactions, we need to take into account the temporal and spatial dynamics at the microscale (μm–cm). Water content, for example, is linked to precipitation patterns and affects the distribution of microbes and their supply with substrates and oxygen. These interactions are highly dynamic along with continuously changing environmental conditions. ![]() Microbial activity is controlled by the physical, chemical, and biological conditions prevailing on the microscale but also feeds back on the soil conditions making the soil-microbe complex a self-organizing system ( Young and Crawford, 2004). Soils harbor myriads of microorganisms providing ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, carbon storage, water filtering, structure stabilization, pest control, and root growth promotion ( Nannipieri et al., 2003 Pulleman et al., 2012 Schloter et al., 2017). Recent technical advances to observe bacteria in soils or soil-like environments combined with multidisciplinary collaborations will help to shed light on currently understudied physical, chemical and biological interactions in the soil-microbe complex. By assessing the importance of different microscale bacterial processes, this review should contribute to the ongoing discussion on challenges related to the upscaling from the microscopic via the profile to the landscape scale. This includes factors like soil structure, carbon and oxygen gradients, temporal variations in hydration conditions or anthropogenic disturbance events. A special emphasis is laid on modeling approaches considering processes and aspects influencing the spatial distribution of bacteria such as motility, vector-based dispersal and biofilm formation. We compare these studies along four dimensions: specific aim, model type (individual-based, population-based), scale, and considered physical, chemical, biological processes and aspects. Here, we review modeling studies with a focus on spatiotemporal dynamics of bacteria and bacterial functions in soil microhabitats. For making meaningful predictions on the spatiotemporal dynamics of soil microbes and their functions, we need to integrate knowledge from physics, chemistry, and biology in our modeling approaches. The feedbacks between these processes make the soil-microbe complex a self-organizing system capable of adapting to the continuously changing conditions mainly driven by the highly fluctuating water content. Instead, it is dictated by physical, chemical, and biological processes and conditions and varying over small spatial and temporal scales. ![]() The distribution of microbes, however, is neither uniform nor random. Soil is populated by highly diverse microbial communities mediating important processes and functions.
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