About this book
Comprehensive guide to biological diversity and function in soils. Topics covered include: Developing new ecological perspectives from advances in soil biodiversity research; Characterisation of Soil Biodiversity; Twenty years of molecular microbial ecology: what have we learned?; The causes and consequences of microbial diversity; Patterns and determinants of belowground diversity; Functional Importance of Soil Biodiversity: Carbon as a substrate; Biodiversity of saprotrophic fungi in relation to their function; Microbial community composition and soil N cycling: is there really a connection?; Soil biodiversity and the composition of plant communities; Trophic assembly and functional redundancy in soil communities; System Linkages: How does the physics of the soil system dictate soil ecological processes?; Plant community composition and diversity: consequences for the decomposer subsystem; Does rhizosphere C flow drive soil biodiversity?; Is diversity of mycorrhizal fungi important for ecosystem functioning?; The balance between productivity and community structure in soil food webs; Soil Biodiversity and Environmental Change; Soil biodiversity in rapidly changing tropical landscapes: scaling down and scaling up; The response of the soil bacterial community to perturbation; Climate change and soil biodiversity; Applications of Soil Biodiversity: Soil biodiversity: indicating stress and managing change in the evolutionary playground; Restoration ecology and the role of soil biodiversity; Soil biodiversity, nature conservation and sustainability; Underview - origins and consequences of belowground biodiversity; Index.
Contents
List of contributors; Preface; Acknowledgements; Part I. Introduction: 1. Developing new perspectives from advances in soil biodiversity research Diana H. Wall, Alastair H. Fitter and Eldor A. Paul; Part II. The Soil Environment: 2. The habitat of soil microbes Iain M. Young and Karl Ritz; 3. Twenty years of molecular analysis of bacterial communities in soils and what have we learned about function? A. G. O'Donnell, S. R. Colvan, E. Malosso and S. Supaphol; 4. Carbon as a substrate for soil organisms D. W. Hopkins and E. G. Gregorich; Part III. Patterns and Drivers of Soil Biodiversity: 5. The use of model Pseudomonas fluorescens populations to study the causes and consequences of microbial diversity Paul B. Rainey, Michael Brockhurst, Angus Buckling, David J. Hodgson and Rees Kassen; 6. Patterns and determinants of soil biological diversity Richard D. Bardgett, Gregor W. Yeates and Jonathan M. Anderson; 7. How plant communities influence decomposer communities David A. Wardle; 8. The balance between productivity and food web structure in soil ecosystems Peter C. Ruiter, Anje-Margriet Neutel and John Moore; 9. Rhizosphere carbon flow: a driver of soil microbial diversity? D. B. Standing, J. I. Rangel Castro, J. I. Prosser, A. Meharg and K. Killham; Part IV. Consequences of Soil Biodiversity: 10. Microbial community composition and soil nitrogen cycling: is there really a connection? Joshua P. Schimel, Jennifer Bennett and Noah Fierer; 11. Biodiversity of saprotrophic fungi in relation to their function: do fungi obey the rules? Clare H. Robinson, E. Janie Pryce Miller and Lewis J. Deacon; 12. Is diversity of mycorrhizal fungi important for ecosystem functioning? J. R. Leake, D. Johnson, D. P. Donnelly, L. Boddy and D. J. Read; 13. Trophic structure and functional redundancy in soil communities Heikki Setala, Matty P. Berg and T. Hefin Jones; 14. Plant-soil feedback and soil biodiversity affect the composition of plant communities Wim H. van der Putten; 15. Response of the soil bacterial community to perturbation Alan J. McCarthy, Neil D. Gray, Thomas P. Curtis and Ian M. Head; Part V. Applications of Soil Biodiversity: 16. Soil biodiversity in rapidly changing tropical landscapes: scaling down and scaling up Ken E. Giller, David Bignell, Patrick Lavelle, Mike Swift, Edmundo Barrios, Fatima Moreira, Meine van Noordwijk, Isabelle Barios, Nancy Karanja and Jeroen Huising; 17. Restoration ecology and the role of soil biodiversity J. A. Harris, P. Grogan and R. J. Hobbs; 18. Soil biodiversity: stress and change in grasslands under restoration succession Lijbert Brussaard, Ron G. M. de Goede, Lia Hemerik and Bart C. Verschoor; 19. Soil biodiversity, nature conservation and sustainability Michael B. Usher; Part IV. Conclusion: 20. Underview: origins and consequences of below-ground biodiversity Karl Ritz; Index.
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Biography
RICHARD D. BARDGETT is Professor of Ecology at Lancaster University and has published widely on plant-soil interactions, nutrient cycling, and soil ecology. He is especially interested in studying linkages between plant and soil biological communities, and examining how these links are affected by herbivores. MICHAEL B. USHER is retired. For more than 40 years he has had a research interest in the soil biota, especially the Collembola (springtails), Isoptera (termites) and Mesostigmata (mostly predatory mites). He also has a strong interest in nature conservation, and is currently working on a number of aspects of the conservation of biodiversity. DAVID W. HOPKINS is Professor of Environmental Science at the University of Stirling and has research expertise in soils science and ecology, especially the biology and biochemistry of nutrient cycling. His research involves ecological, environmental and archaeological projects.
