Biological Diversity and Function in Soils

Although soil provides physical support for plants and contributes to a variety of important environmental functions, many questions about the ecological significance of its biological diversity, and how ecosystem function is affected, have never been asked. Recent technical developments, as well as new experimental and modelling approaches, have led to a renaissance in soil biodiversity research. The key areas are reflected in this new volume, which brings together many leading contributions on the role and importance of soil biota.

Soil has generally been regarded as something of a 'black box' by ecologists. The importance of soil is obvious: it provides physical support for plants, and both the living and non-living components contribute to a variety of important environmental functions. Soil is a species-rich habitat, but many questions about the ecological significance of the soil's biological diversity, and in particular how it affects ecosystem function, have never been asked. The linkages between above-ground ecology, which is rich in ecological theory, and below-ground ecology, where investigation has been restricted by methodological difficulties, have not been made. Technical developments, including isotopic and molecular methods as well as experimental and modelling approaches, have led to a renaissance in soil biodiversity research. The key areas are reflected in this exciting volume which brings together many leading contributors to explore the role and importance of soil biota.

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 Setälä, 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.

A better understanding of the dynamic roles of soils in ecosystems has followed advances in techniques for identifying and characterising the organisms and the community, at the same time as measuring major ecosystem processes. This book brings together and synthesises this material and puts soils in their wider ecological context.

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.