Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
agricultural and biological sciences
Soil fauna and soil function in the fabric of the food web
Pedobiologia, Volume 50, No. 6, Year 2007
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
Over the last four decades, spanning David Coleman's career, and in no small measure thanks to him, soil ecologists have made tremendous progress in describing and understanding the overwhelming complexity of biological, biophysical and biochemical interactions in soil. These interactions shape the soil as a habitat for the soil food web and the vegetation and, thereby, regulate the two main life-supporting processes on Planet Earth: production and decomposition. Changes in decomposition and production processes are governed by (human-induced) changes in vegetation composition/cover, the amounts and quality of organic residues and (in)organic fertilizers entering the soil. Such modifications alter the physical environment and the soil biota. Hence, decomposition and production processes cannot be understood and/or manipulated without explicitly addressing the composition and activity of the soil food web. Using a conceptual model, we argue that quantitative understanding of biophysical interactions, in particular those between soil fauna and soil structure, are paramount to understanding biological and biochemical processes in soil and the availability of water and nutrients to plants. The need to increase the efficiency of crop production worldwide, to reverse soil degradation and to increase soil resilience will set the agenda for soil ecologists in the near future. © 2006 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.
Authors & Co-Authors
Brussaard, Lijbert
Unknown Affiliation
Pulleman, Mirjam M.
Unknown Affiliation
Ouédraogo, Élisée
Unknown Affiliation
Mando, Abdoulaye
Unknown Affiliation
Six, Johan W.
Unknown Affiliation
Statistics
Citations: 153
Authors: 5
Affiliations: 6
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1016/j.pedobi.2006.10.007
ISSN:
00314056
Research Areas
Environmental
Food Security
Study Approach
Quantitative