The third edition of this classic and well-established text book has been revised and updated and has a new section on ecology added to the previous sections on agriculture, forestry and the environmental sciences. The text is comprehensive, and will be very useful to undergraduate and post-graduate students, and also researchers wanting information in other than their own areas. The book has a wide range of well-known contributors, and is well presented and well laid out, with many supportive clear figures and photographs. There are five subject areas: background, soil biota, concepts and interactions, biochemistry and biogeochemistry and human activities, dealt with over 18 chapters. These include new chapters on bioremediation, soil molecular biology, biodiversity, climate change, physiology and ecology, complementing the previous, updated, chapters. These provide a comprehensive text that covers the subject of soil ecology in an holistic fashion, in sufficient depth for all levels of students and researchers. Topics covered range, for example, from carbon, nitrogen and other biogeochemical cycling via indigenous spatial variations to the management of organisms and processes.

These chapters provide excellent, contempory information over the vast range of different disciplines involved in this subject, and each ends with a reasonably comprehensive bibliography that provides a good starting point for those wanting further information on the subject areas.

This book is recommended to both those new to, and those established in, the many disciplines involved in soil ecology.