Fundamentals of Soil Ecology

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Academic Press, Jul 19, 2004 - Nature - 386 pages
This fully revised and expanded edition of Fundamentals of Soil Ecology continues its holistic approach to soil biology and ecosystem function. Students and ecosystem researchers will gain a greater understanding of the central roles that soils play in ecosystem development and function. The authors emphasize the increasing importance of soils as the organizing center for all terrestrial ecosystems and provide an overview of theory and practice of soil ecology, both from an ecosystem and evolutionary biology point of view. This volume contains updated and greatly expanded coverage of all belowground biota (roots, microbes and fauna) and methods to identify and determine its distribution and abundance. New chapters are provided on soil biodiversity and its relationship to ecosystem processes, suggested laboratory and field methods to measure biota and their activities in ecosystems..

  • Contains over 60% new material and 150 more pages
  • Includes new chapters on soil biodiversity and its relationship to ecosystem function
  • Outlines suggested laboratory and field methods
  • Incorporates new pedagogical features
  • Combines theoretical and practical approaches
 

Contents

1 Historical Overview of Soils and the Fitness of the Soil Environment
1
Roots and Rhizosphere Associates
23
Activities of Heterotrophic OrganismsMicrobes
47
Activities of Heterotrophic OrganismsThe Soil Fauna
79
5 Decomposition and Nutrient Cycling
187
Detritivory and Microbivory in Soils
227
7 Soil Biodiversity and Linkages to Soil Processes
247
8 Future Developments in Soil Ecology
271
9 Laboratory and Field Exercises in Soil Ecology
299
References
327
Index
375
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About the author (2004)

David C. Coleman has been a lifelong soil ecologist with interests in soil biodiversity and biogeochemical cycling. He conducted research at the Savannah River Ecology Laboratory of the University of Georgia (1965-1971), and the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University (1972-1985). While there, he also progressed through the ranks from Assistant to Associate and Full Professor of Zoology and Entomology at CSU. From 1985 he has been a Distinguished Research Professor of Ecology in the Institute of Ecology and later the Odum School of Ecology of the University of Georgia. He has been Professor Emeritus since 2005. During the academic year of 1979-1980, Coleman was visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) Institute of Nuclear Sciences and Soil Bureau in Lower Hutt, New Zealand. David received the Distinguished Service award from the Soil Ecology Society in 1999 and the Distinguished Ecosystem Scientist award from the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory in 2002. He served on several advisory panels on Ecology and Ecosystems with the National Science Foundation and on an advisory panel on Alternative Agriculture for the National Research Council. His research has concentrated on microbial-faunal interactions in detrital food webs in agroecosystems, e.g, Horseshoe Bend, near Athens, and in forested watersheds at the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in western North Carolina, as part of the Coweeta Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) study. From 1996-2002 he was co-lead PI on the Coweeta LTER project. He was also a McMaster Visiting Research Fellow at CSIRO, Adelaide, South Australia, January-April 2006. David served as co-Chief Editor of Soil Biology and Biochemistry from 1998 to 2010 and serves as its Review Editor currently. He serves on editorial boards of several other soil biology journals. He has published over 300 refereed journal articles and books and is senior author of Fundamentals of Soil Ecology (second edition, 2004), and the author of Big Ecology: The Emergence of Ecosystem Science (2010).