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Interactions in Soil: Promoting Plant Growth

  • Book
  • © 2014

Overview

  • Provides a framework for a holistic approach to understanding the supporting role of soil biodiversity for plant growth
  • Discusses plant-soil feedbacks in natural, agricultural and urban soils
  • The book takes a novel approach by emphasizing positive as opposed to negative feedbacks in soil. This is a perspective that has been presented far less
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Biodiversity, Community and Ecosystems (BECO, volume 1)

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

This book investigates soil ecology and biodiversity for its ability to maintain a balance of beneficial organisms to support plant growth. This subject is discussed by a group of international authors in natural, agricultural and urban systems. The importance of biodiversity per se and, specifically, the feedbacks between the plant and soil biota in mediating soil function are emphasized. Examples are selected from allelopathy and invasive plant species along with the, hitherto overlooked, role of viruses in soil. The book is intended to provide a framework for a holistic understanding of the essential role of soil organisms in promoting plant growth.

Reviews

“This timely and high-quality publication contains 11 chapters that focus on the question: What makes for a good soil and what challenges are there for sustaining a soil for optimal plant growth? … Overall, this is an excellent summary of present understanding, and highlights the need for continued study if the overarching question is ever to be fully answered.” (Peter J. Gregory, The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 91 (2), June, 2016)

“Interactions in Soil, edited by Dighton (Rutgers) and Krumins (Montclair State), is a timely book on an important topic of growing interest to scholars, conservationists, farmers, and all those interested in the role of healthy soils, particularly soil biology, in providing ecosystem services to society. … it is a useful resource, especially for graduate students and scholars in the field. … Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and researchers/faculty.” (W. J. R. Reeve, Choice, Vol. 52 (6), February, 2015)

Editors and Affiliations

  • The State University of New Jersey, Pinelands Field Station, Rutgers, New Lisbon, USA

    John Dighton

  • Dept. of Biology and Molecular Biology, Montclair State University, Montclair, USA

    Jennifer Adams Krumins

About the editors

1) John Dighton, Professor, Rutgers State University of New Jersey, Station Director of Pinelands Field Station, President of the Soil Ecology Society, USA He is an expert in soil ecology and leads research in the area through the Pinelands Field Station. He has written several articles for good international journals and book chapters (first ones start appearing in the 80s), including for Springer, but also for Elsevier (I would say mostly), Wiley, Cambridge University Press, among others. Some of his papers were very well cited. He is member of the Editorial Board of several international journals such as Mycological Research (Elsevier), Soil Biology and Biochemistry (Elsevier), Bartonia (Philadelphia Botanical Club). He edited a book in 1993 - Fungi in Ecosystem Processes (Mycology Series) - Marcel Dekker Publishers (now part of the Taylor & Francis Group). It is still available through Amazon for 187 USD. There will be a Society meeting in 2013. The proceedings of these meetings are always published by Elsevier. As Dighton is the President of the Society as of January this year, there could be room for some exploring there. 2) Jennifer Adams Krumins, Assistant Professor, Montclair State University, USA Invited by John Dighton for this proposed book. She has published several articles in international journals including Springer, Elsevier, Wiley, and a very highly cited article co- published in Nature Reviews - Microbiology (403 citations since 2006).

Bibliographic Information

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