Includes bibliographical references and index.

The soil environment / Dominic Standing and Ken Killham -- Microbial phylogeny and diversity in soil / Vigdis Torsvik and Lise Øvreås -- Horizontal gene transfer and microevolution in soil / Kaare M. Nielsen, Pål Johnsen, and Jan Dirk van Elsas -- The bacteria and archaea in soil / Jan Dirk van Elsas, Vigdis Torsvik, Anton Hartmann, Lise Øvreås, and Janet K. Jansson -- The fungi in soil / Roger D. Finlay -- Protozoa and other protista in soil / Marianne Clarholm, Michael Bonkowski, and Bryan Griffiths -- Microbial interactions in soil / Jan Dirk van Elsas, Ling Tam, Roger D. Finlay, Ken Killham, and Jack. T. Trevors -- Plant-associated bacteria : lifestyle and molecular interactions / Jan Sørensen and Angela Sessitsch -- Microorganisms cycling soil nutrients and their diversity / Jim I Prosser -- Soil microbial communities and global climate change : methanotrophic and methanogenic communities as paradigms / Ralf Conrad -- Methods to detect and quantify bacteria in soil / Ole Nybroe, Kristian K. Brandt, Mette H. Nicolaisen, and Jan Sørensen -- Analysis of microbial communities in soil microhabitats using fluorescence in situ hybridization / Michael Schmid, Michael Rothballer, and Anton Hartmann -- Functional characterization of soil microbial communities by messenger RNA analysis / Shilpi Sharma, Manish Kumar Aneja, and Michael Schloter -- Molecular fingerprinting techniques to analyze soil microbial communities / Miruna Oros-Sichler, Rodrigo Costa, Holger Heuer, and Kornelia Smalla -- Detection of active bacterial populations in soil / Tracey M. Timms-Wilson, Robert I. Griffiths, Andrew S. Whiteley, Jim I. Prosser, and Mark J. Bailey -- Soil metagenomics : exploring and exploiting the soil microbial gene pool / Sara Sjöling, William Stafford, and Don A. Cowan -- Biosensors to monitor soil health or toxicity / Pernille Hasse Busk Poulsen, Lars Hestbjerg Hansen, and Søren Johannes Sørensen -- Soil suppressiveness to plant diseases / Christian Steinberg, Véronique Edel-Hermann, Claude Alabouvette, Philippe Lemanceau -- Biological pesticides for control of seed- and soil-borne plant pathogens / John M. Whipps and Berndt Gerhardson -- Plant growth-promoting bacteria / Saleema Saleh and Bernard R. Glick -- Biodegradation and bioremediation of organic pollutants in soil / Kam Tin Leung, Kanavillil Nandakumar, Kurissery Sreekumari, Hung Lee, and Jack T. Trevors -- Statistical analyses of microbiological and environmental data / Brian B. McSpadden Gardener.