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This textbook explores the complex nature of soil biological communities and their environments, and covers deserts, rainforests, seasonal tropical forests, dry deciduous forests, and island environments in the tropical zone. It provides essential information on soil biology concepts, ecological processes, plant-soil feedback, trophic structure, and land use effects on soil’s biological properties. The book also offers an updated approach to soil biota and microbiota and their interactions with plants that regulate the structures and functions of tropical ecosystems. Uniquely, it addresses island environments and natural disasters, shedding new light on soil organisms recovering tropical ecosystem functions. Further topics include ecological processes, plant-soil interactions, trophic communities, molecular approaches, and land use, making the book a valuable asset for students, educators and researchers engaged in environmental sciences, biodiversity and conservation, soil ecology, soil biology, ecology, zoology, and soil biota classification using classical and molecular tools.
1. The soil ecosystem at the tropics 1
2. The living soil 24
3. Soil organisms and ecological processes 38
4. Plant-soil feedback 57
5. Trophic structure and soil biological communities 67
6. Land use and soil contamination in dry tropical ecosystems 85
7. Natural ecosystems and biological invasion 103
8. Natural disasters 132
Tancredo Souza is a Visiting Professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, where his work focuses on biology and mutualistic communities, especially macroarthropod community composition, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, free-living nematodes, and N-fixing bacteria associated with exotic and native plant species. He is the editor or author of several books (e.g., Handbook of Mycorrhizal Fungi, Biologia do Solo da Caatinga, Solos em Sistemas Agroecológicos) and journal articles. He teaches courses on soil biology, agroecology, mycology, and biostatistics, and has recently begun investigating the effects of biological invasion on soil biota diversity in tropical seasonal dry forests, tropical forests, and subtropical moist broadleaf forests.
