1st Edition

Fauna in Soil Ecosystems Recycling Processes, Nutrient Fluxes, and Agricultural Production

Edited By Gero Benckiser Copyright 1997

    Offers an integrated presentation of the microbial, agronomic and recycling aspects of soil faunal potentials, emphasizing agricultural ecosystems and furnishing methods for modelling food webs. The text covers morphology, reproduction, abundances, basic requirements, competition, predation, parasitism, nutrient cycling and phytopathological interactions, soil physics and agricultural management, plus methods to quantify soil faunal groups.

    Organic inputs and soil metabolism; protozoa - recyclers and indicators of agroecosystem quality; nematodes - harmful and beneficial organisms; enchytraeids; earthworms (lumbricidae - oligochaeta) - important promoters of soil development and soil fertility; springtails and mites - important knots in the food web of soils; gastropods, isopods, diplopods and chilopods - neglected groups of the decomposer food web; spiders, carabids and staphylinids - the ecological potential of predatory macroarthropods; soil-food web interactions and their modelling.

    Biography

    Gero Benckiser