Table of Contents

1: The Saprotrophes 1.1: Eukaryotic cells 1.2: Protozoa 1.3: Chromista 1.4: Fungi 1.5: Invertebrates 1.6: The Bacteria (Prokaryote Bacteria and Archea) 1.7: Roots, fine roots and root-hair cells 1.8: Summary 1.9: Suggested further reading 2: The Habitat 2.1: "Through a Ped, Darkly" 2.2: Soil and mineral composition 2.3: Soil air 2.4: Water content 2.5: Soil organic matter 2.6: Dynamics of soil physical structure 2.7: Summary 2.8: Suggested further reading 3: Sampling and Enumeration 3.1: Soil collection 3.2: Site variation and statistical patterns 3.3: Extraction and enumeration 3.4: Number of species in functional groups 3.5: Summary 3.6: Suggested further reading 4: Reconstructing the Soil Food Web 4.1: Functional categories 4.2: Primary decomposition 4.3: Secondary decomposition 4.4: Primary saprotrophes 4.5: Secondary saprotrophes 4.6: Other consumers 4.7: Omnivory 4.8: Symbionts 4.9: Opportunistic parasites and parasitism 4.10: Summary 4.11: Suggested further reading 5: Spatial and Temporal Patterns 5.1: Regulation of growth 5.2: Periods of activity 5.3: Patterns in the time and space 5.4: Primary saprotrophes 5.5: Secondary saprotrophes and other consumers 5.6: Synthesis and conclusions 5.7: Summary 5.8: Suggestions for further reading 6: Integrating the Food Web 6.1: Global impact of decomposition 6.2: How to trace nutrients 6.3: Soil food web models 6.4: Summary 6.5: Suggested further reading

About the Author

Sina Adl obtained his PhD from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) in 1998. His post-doctoral training was at the Universite de Paris-XI (France) and at the Institute of Ecology at the University of Georgia (Athens, USA). He has been a university Professor since 2002, first at Dalhousie University (Halifax, Canada) then at the University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Canada). He has published in soil ecology, protist ecology and classification, and on global biodiversity. He teaches courses in Microbial Diversity, Microbial Ecology, Comparative Protistology, Soil Ecology, and Global Food Security. He is the founding editor and Editor-in-Chief of the journal, Rhizosphere (Elsevier).

Reviews

"This is a good book to dip into for insights into a variety of biotechnology science and policy-related topics."-- "Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy Management"