Customer Reviews

Fundamentals of Soil Ecology, Second Edition

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4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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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.

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.

Written by the 'men' of soil ecology. Soils are a really important but too often overlooked part of ecology....slowly gaining momentum with the advances in technology.

I agree with previous reviewers. This is a great book for beginners, classroom and learning about soil ecology. Fantastic photos and diagrams and useful for a beginner and intermediate in the field.