Table Of ContentBiodiversity, Community and Ecosystems
John Dighton
Jennifer Adams Krumins
Editors
Interactions in
Soil: Promoting
Plant Growth
Biodiversity, Community and Ecosystems
Volume 1
Series Editor
David Wardle
For further volumes:
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John Dighton (cid:129) Jennifer Adams Krumins
Editors
Interactions in Soil:
Promoting Plant Growth
Editors
John Dighton Jennifer Adams Krumins
Pinelands Field Station, Rutgers, The State Department of Biology
University of New Jersey and Molecular Biology
New Lisbon , NJ , USA Montclair State University
Montclair , NJ , USA
ISSN 2211-7822 ISSN 2211-7830 (electronic)
ISBN 978-94-017-8889-2 ISBN 978-94-017-8890-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-94-017-8890-8
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2014940280
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Pref ace
In terrestrial ecosystems, soil is the rooting matrix in which plants grow. But, what
makes for a good soil and what challenges are there for sustaining a soil for optimal
plant growth? It is from this viewpoint that we have assembled the chapters in this
book to describe the functional interactions of the organisms in soil that lead to soil
quality. For most horticulturalists and agriculturalists, soil is a black box – the
medium which supplies the plant with nutrients and water, to which fertilizers need
to be added, on occasion, to maintain plant growth. However to the soil ecologist,
soil is a living entity comprising of the mineral and organic matrix in which a myr-
iad of life interacts with each other and with the plants growing there. This soil
entity is a dynamic system with spatial and temporal heterogeneity making it one of
the most complex of ecosystems. The complexity and biodiversity of organisms in
soil is essential to the ecosystem services provided by soil and in maintaining
homeostasis in the supply of nutrients for plant growth and suppression of plant
pathogenic organisms. However, the disease suppressiveness of soil is challenged in
the face of intensive agricultural practices, land use change, pollution and invasive
species, which may suppress biodiversity and alter soil chemistry. Monocrop agri-
culture is more susceptible to pathogen attack than mixed crop or natural vegetation.
Disturbance events reduce biodiversity and often leave a community less well
adapted to protect plants from pathogens, and invasive species frequently change
soil conditions to the dis-benefi t of native vegetation, allowing competition by the
invasive species to be enhanced.
This book originated from an interest in Dave Coleman’s keynote address to the
6th Australian Soilborne Disease Symposium (Coleman 2011) in which he high-
lighted the importance of soil biodiversity in disease suppression as well as noting
our lack of understanding of many components of soil that have received little
investigation, including the role of viruses, trophic and non-trophic interactions
regulating processes, soil management techniques and the increasingly important
role t hat molecular tools may reveal in the functioning of microbial populations and
communities. In this short book, we review and develop the idea that soil has both a
suppressive and supportive role in plant growth. This is encompassed in soil biodi-
versity and the trophic and non-trophic interactions that occur within the soil biotic
v
vi Preface
community regulating the supply of nutrients to plant populations and communities.
Much of the biotic interactions occur around the plant roots, so we explore the
unique diversity of organisms in that zone, along with the plant pathogens that gain
access via roots and investigate the effects of urbanization and invasive plants on
these interactions as disturbance factors.
New Lisbon , NJ , USA John Dighton
Montclair , NJ , USA Jennifer Adams Krumins
Reference
Coleman DC (2011) Understanding soil processes: one of the last frontiers in
biological and ecological research. Aust Plant Pathol 40:207–214
Contents
1 Introduction: Soils and Their Promotion of Plant Growth ................. 1
John Dighton
2 Soils Supporting Biodiversity ................................................................. 27
Elena Havlicek and Edward A. D. Mitchell
3 Benefi cial Interactions in the Rhizosphere ........................................... 59
W. H. Gera Hol , Wietse de Boer , and Almudena Medina
4 The Positive Effects of Trophic Interactions in Soil ............................. 81
Jennifer Adams Krumins
5 Soils Suppressing Biodiversity ............................................................... 95
Guénola Pérès
6 Root Pathogens ........................................................................................ 119
Aad J. Termorshuizen
7 Non-trophic Interactions: Allelopathy .................................................. 139
Pavle Pavlović , Adele Muscolo , Maria Sidari , and Miroslava Mitrović
8 Viruses in Soil .......................................................................................... 163
Brian Reavy , Maud M. Swanson , and Michael Taliansky
9 Soils Suppressing and Promoting Non-native Plant Invasions ........... 181
Kenneth J. Elgersma
10 Urban Soil and the Challenges of Restoring Natural Ecosystems ...... 203
Pamela A. Hazelton and Anne Clements
11 Toward a Holistic Approach to Soils and Plant Growth ..................... 211
David C. Coleman , Weixin Zhang , and Shenglei Fu
Index ................................................................................................................. 225
vii
Contributors
Anne Clements A nne Clements and Associates Pty Limited, Environmental and
Botanical Consultant , North Sydney , Australia
David C. Coleman Odum School of Ecology , University of Georgia , Athens ,
GA , USA
Wietse de Boer D epartment of Microbial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of
Ecology , NIOO-KNAW , Wageningen , The Netherlands
Department of Soil Quality, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
John Dighton Pinelands Field Station, Rutgers, The State University of New
Jersey , New Lisbon , NJ , USA
Kenneth J. Elgersma Department of Biology , University of Northern Iowa , Cedar
Falls , IA , USA
Shenglei Fu Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restoration and Management of
Degraded Ecosystems, South China Botanical Garden, C hinese Academy of
Sciences , Guangzhou , China
Elena Havlicek Soils Section, Federal Offi ce for the Environment FOEN, B ern,
Switzerland
Pamela A. Hazelton Faculty of Engineering , University of Technology , Sydney ,
Australia
W. H. Gera Hol D epartment of Terrestrial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of
Ecology , NIOO-KNAW , Wageningen , The Netherlands
Jennifer Adams Krumins Department of Biology and Molecular Biology ,
Montclair State University , Montclair , NJ , USA
Almudena Medina Department of Microbial Ecology, Netherlands Institute of
Ecology , NIOO-KNAW , Wageningen , The Netherlands
ix
