Since the development of agriculture 10,000 years ago, crops and the soil they grow in have interacted and affected each other"s existence. Soil microbial communities exert an important role in maintaining the health of soil and productivity of crops, and in turn, their population dynamics are influenced by agricultural systems. Researchers have attempted to assess community structure, as well as abundance, distribution, and function of species under different agricultural management systems. The effect of plants, soil, and agricultural management practices on the population dynamics of bacteria and fungi is reviewed, and methods to describe microbial communities are discussed.