Measuring and assessing the biological health of soils

• 1.Soil biology, soil health and ecosystem services: an overview: C. Vazquez, T. Mulder, L. Chavez Rodriguez, F. David, D. P. Di Lonardo, A. Garsia and R. E. Creamer, Wageningen University and Research, The Netherlands; E.K. Bünemann, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), Switzerland; H. Soinne, Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke), Finland; P. Cheval, Université de Lorraine, INRAE, LSE, F-54000 Nancy, France; A. Basile, Institute for Mediterranean Agricultural and Forestry Systems, National Research Council of Italy, Italy; A. Bacq-labreuil, Genesis Soil Health, France; J. Nordén, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA), Norway; L. Cunha, University of Coimbra, Portugal; C. Imbert, Leibniz-Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Germany; and C. Boix-Fayos, Soil and Water Conservation Research Group, CEBAS-CSIC, Spain;

Part 1 Advances in DNA-based methods, biological and other indicators to investigate soil microbial activity

• 2.Advances in DNA-based methods for assessing abundance and diversity of soil microbial groups: Dietrich S. Epp Schmidt, Stephanie A. Yarwood and Jared L. Wilmoth, University of Maryland, USA;
• 3.Advances in soil quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) techniques for identifying and studying soil microbial communities: M. Giles, The James Hutton Institute, UK; A. Cotton, The University of Manchester, UK; and C. Beukes, The James Hutton Institute, UK and University of Pretoria, South Africa;
• 4.Advances in soil respiration techniques for assessing soil microbial activity: Ryan D. Stewart, Virginia Tech, USA; and Michael S. Strickland, University of Idaho, USA;
• 5.Enzyme assays for measuring soil microbial activity: Paolo Nannipieri, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy; and Carmen Trasar-Cepeda, MBG Sede Santiago-CSIC, Spain;
• 6.Advances in stable isotope profiling (SIP) techniques to track plant-microbial interactions: Jennifer L. Kane and Kinsey M. Reed, West Virginia University, USA; Paul Dijkstra, Egbert Schwartz, Victor O. Leshyk and Bruce A. Hungate, Northern Arizona University, USA; Kirsten Hofmockel, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA; and Debjani Sihi, North Carolina State University, USA;
• 7.Applications and advances in using phospholipid fatty acids (PLFA) as biomarkers in analysing soil microbial communities: Sarina Claassens, Curtin University, Australia;

Part 2 Fauna as indicators of soil health

• 8.Macrofauna as indicators of soil health: earthworms and enchytraeids: Alix Vidal, Wageningen University, The Netherlands; Céline Pelosi, UMR EMMAH, France; George G. Brown, Universidade Federal do Paraná and Embrapa Florestas, Brazil; Nicole Schon, AgResearch Limited, New Zealand; Tullia Calogiuri and Jan Willem Van Groenigen, Wageningen University, The Netherlands;
• 9.Microarthropods as soil health indicators: Junwei Hu and Stefaan De Neve, Ghent University, Belgium; and Zoë Lindo, University of Western Ontario, Canada;
• 10.Nematodes as indicators of soil health: Deborah A. Neher, University of Vermont, USA; and Krisztina N. Mosdossy, Cornell University, USA;

Part 3 Applications

• 11.Biological indicators in laboratory-based soil health testing programmes: Joseph P. Amsili and Harold van Es, Cornell University, USA;
• 12.Using biological indicators of soil health to assess the impact of particular cropping practices: Shamim Gul, McGill University, Canada and University of Balochistan, Pakistan; and Joann K. Whalen, McGill University, Canada and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco;
• 13.Using biological indicators to assess the health of forest soils: Weixin Zhang and Cancan Zhao, Henan University, China; Bin Wang, Xin Sun and Zhipeng Li, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China; Tao Liu, National Engineering Laboratory for Applied Technology of Forestry and Ecology in South China and Central South University of Forestry and Technology, China; Xiao Zhang, Northwest A&F University, China; Yuanhu Shao, Zhifeng Shen and Shenglei Fu, Henan University, China; and Yiqing Li, University of Hawaii at Hilo, USA;

Dr Jeanette Norton is Professor of Soil Microbiology in the Department of Plants, Soils and Climate at Utah State University, USA. She is a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America. Professor Norton is internationally known for her research on ways of analysing the soil microbiome, including its role in nitrogen and carbon cycling.

Dr Josh Schimel is Professor of Soil Ecology in the Faculty of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology at the University of California-Santa Barbara, USA. Professor Schimel is Co-Editor in Chief of Soil Biology and Biochemistry. His research focuses on role of soil microbes in controlling ecosystem-scale processes.

Dr Zoë Lindo is Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Western Ontario, Canada. Professor Lindo is Co-Chair of the FAO International Initiative on Soil Biodiversity (NETSOB) and Editor-in-Chief of Pedobiologia: Journal Of Soil Ecology as well as being an acknowledged expert on soil biodiversity and its impact on ecosystem function.

“Soils are fundamental to human civilisations and managing them in a sustainable manner is imperative. This necessitates the appropriate and accurate measurement of key soil properties and biological parameters are now widely understood to be central to these objectives. This excellent book, produced by an internationally outstanding group of experts, comprehensively documents the state-of-the-art in terms of assessing and quantifying belowground life and its attendant functions. Crucially, it provides a coherent and accessible resource that will serve as a key standard reference for anyone tasked with assessing – or interpreting such assessments of – soil health.” (Dr Karl Ritz, Emeritus Professor of Soil Ecology, University of Nottingham, UK)