“…To obtain viable cells, the soil sample can be converted into a suspension, agitated by vortexing or sonication and the supernatant spread on to solid media to obtain single colonies. Alternatively, the cells can be removed from the soil by using chemical dispersants to dissociate the micro-organisms from soil particles (for example, MacDonald, 1986;Hopkins et al, 1991 a, 6 ) in single-or multi-stage procedures followed by either the isolation of single colonies or an estimation of biomass.…”