A Handbook of Tropical Soil Biology

This practical handbook describes sampling and laboratory assessment methods for the biodiversity of a number of key functional groups of soil organisms, including insects, earthworms, nematodes, fungi and bacteria. The methods have been assembled and the protocols drafted by a number of scientists associated with the UNEP-GEF funded Conservation and Sustainable Management of Below-Ground Biodiversity project, executed by the Tropical Soil Biodiversity and Fertility (TSBF) institute of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). The methods provide a standardized basis for characterizing soil biodiversity occurring in terrestrial natural and agro-ecosystems in the tropics and current land uses in forest and forest margin areas. The aim is to assess soil biodiversity against current and historic land use practices both at plot and landscape scales and further to identify opportunities for improved sustainable land management through the introduction and/or management of soil biota, thus reducing the need for external inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides. The book does not contain identification keys as such, but there is extensive advice on the handling of specimens and the allocation of organisms to strain or functional group type. Published with TSBF-CIAT.

List of Plates, Figures and Tables	p. ix
List of Contributors	p. xv
Foreword	p. xix
Preface	p. xxi
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations	p. xxv
The Inventory of Soil Biological Diversity: Concepts and General Guidelines	p. 1
Soil organisms and soil ecosystem services	p. 1
Functional groups of soil biota	p. 5
Target groups of soil biota	p. 6
Methods for inventory of below-ground biodiversity: General principles	p. 9
Inventory of below-ground biodiversity across space and timescales	p. 10
References	p. 15
Sampling Strategy and Design to Evaluate Below-ground Biodiversity	p. 17
Introduction	p. 17
Study objectives and sampling basics	p. 18
Practical approaches	p. 21
Hierarchy, replication and sample size	p. 22
Focus on objectives: Stratification	p. 25
Random and systematic sampling	p. 26
Dealing with variability	p. 29
Point measurement scheme	p. 30
Practical consideration in organizing the field campaign	p. 33
Sampling in the CSM-BGBD project	p. 34
References	p. 41
Macrofauna	p. 43
Introduction	p. 43
Inventory of soil and litter macroarthropods and earthworms in particular using the soil monolith	p. 44
Transect methods for termites, ants, beetles and earthworms	p. 49
Ants and other macrofauna and mesofauna in litter by the Winkler method	p. 59
Beetles and other macrofauna and mesofauna in litter: Baited and non-baited pitfalls	p. 61
Recording and expressing the data	p. 66
Minimum data sets	p. 69
References	p. 71
Appendices	p. 76
Soil Collembola, Acari and Other Mesofauna - The Berlese Method	p. 85
Introduction	p. 85
Sampling methods	p. 86
Extraction	p. 87
Specimen clearing and mounting processes	p. 90
Specimen identification and data analyses	p. 92
References	p. 94
Soil Nematodes	p. 97
Introduction	p. 97
Soil sampling	p. 98
Nematode extraction	p. 98
Nematode fixation and counting	p. 100
Glycerine infiltration and nematode observation	p. 100
Indices and parameters for characterizing nematode populations	p. 102
References	p. 105
Nitrogen-fixing Leguminosae-nodulating Bacteria	p. 107
Economic and ecological importance of nitrogen-fixing Leguminosaenodulating bacteria (NFLNB) symbiosis	p. 107
Current taxonomy of NFLNB	p. 107
Evaluation of NFLNB diversity in soil	p. 110
Methodology applied in the CSM-BGBD project: An overview	p. 111
Material requirements for field and lab work	p. 115
Methods in detail	p. 115
Maintenance and collections of pure cultures	p. 121
References	p. 121
Appendices	p. 129
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF)	p. 131
Introduction	p. 131
Taxonomy and classification of AMF	p. 132
Methods to assess AMF infective propagules and colonization	p. 134
Methods to assess AMF diversity	p. 137
References	p. 141
Appendices	p. 144
Saprophytic and Plant Pathogenic Soil Fungi	p. 149
Introduction	p. 149
Ecological importance of fungi in soil	p. 151
Aspects of modern systematics	p. 151
Soil sampling	p. 153
Assessment of soil fungi: Culturing based procedures	p. 153
How to identify soil fungi	p. 157
Assessment of soil fungi: DNA targeted techniques	p. 158
Data analysis	p. 163
Preservation and genetic resource collection	p. 164
References	p. 165
Appendix	p. 173
Sampling, Conserving and Identifying Fruit Flies	p. 175
Introduction	p. 175
Sampling fruit flies	p. 176
Collecting the trapped adults	p. 176
Fruit sampling	p. 177
Obtaining the pupae	p. 177
Species identification	p. 177
References	p. 178
Entomopathogenic Fungi and Nematodes	p. 179
Introduction	p. 179
Biology of entomopathogenic fungi and nematodes	p. 180
Methodology for isolation of entomopathogenic fungi	p. 181
Methodology for isolation of entomopathogenic nematodes	p. 183
References	p. 184
Description and Classification of Land Use at Sampling Locations for the Inventory of Below-ground Biodiversity	p. 185
Summary of the method for land use description	p. 185
Background and design principles	p. 185
Observations on land use: Classifiers and attributes	p. 190
Description and classification of land use	p. 202
References	p. 211
Index	p. 213
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

FREE SHIPPING

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

A Handbook of Tropical Soil Biology

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials