soil food webs, the exudates released by plant roots are not received very well by the intended soil organisms because many of them are not present. This causes the plant to expend additional energy on exudates in an attempt to feed a depleted SFW. Excessive soil disturbance simplifies the soil food web to include only a limited number of species; mostly bacteria. Thus, plants in a degraded soil often signal and supply food in vain for lack of the species of microorganisms that are supposed to be present in the
Deleted SFW makes for less efficient energy usage.
