Fundamentals of Soil Ecology, Second Edition
By addebook • Oct 2nd, 2008 • Category: Biology •
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Fundamentals of Soil Ecology, Second Edition
Fundamentals of Soil Ecology, Second Edition
By David C. Coleman, Jr., D. A. Crossley, Paul F. Hendrix
Publisher: Academic Press
Number Of Pages: 408
Publication Date: 2004-07-19
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0121797260
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780121797263
Binding: Paperback
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
Summary: Great for an intermediate level reader
Rating: 4
It’s a perfect book for anyone who wants to know more about soil ecology. It gives introductory basics on some soil chemistry and pedogenesis, but then dives fully into the different ecological processes (and a large section on the critters) at work. I’m using this book in a class I am taking and I would definitely recommend it. Its language is simple enough to express some of the more difficult concepts, but it is complex enough to keep you from being bored. Plenty of graphs, pictures, and studies to accompany readings.
Summary: A great reference for ecologists and soil scientists.
Rating: 5
I just received a copy, and haven’t had time to look through it completely, but I would highly recommend this book for any ecologists (particularly graduate students like myself) who are working with organisms that have any biological connection to the soil. Just looking at the number of pages, it’s been updated and expanded quite a bit since the first edition. Chapter 4, on soil organisms, is big and relatively descriptive (with useful pictures). Also covers in significant detail microbial communities (Ch. 3), nutrient cycling (Ch. 5), soil food webs (Ch. 6), the relationship between biodiversity and soil (Ch. 7) and includes quite a few sampling methodologies. This book covers, but does not stress the plant-soil relationship (Ch. 2, only a little over 20 pages), which is nice since that information has been of greater historical focus and is covered well elsewhere, while this book’s strength is on things that are not as well covered in the standard literature. Other books that cover similar material as this one would be Dindal’s (1990) “Soil Biology Guide” (a classic, animal taxonomy-centered tome in this field) and Wood’s (1989) smaller, more ecology-centered text “Soil Biology” (too much like this one to justify purchasing it now?). Coleman et al.’s emphasis on ecology makes this book stand out as a great reference.
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