Methods for the examination of organismal diversity in soils and sediments

G. S. Hall, Pierre Lasserre, D. L. Hawksworth

Our lack of knowledge of the organisms dwelling in soils and sediments and of their roles in ecological processes, constitutes a major barrier to understanding how ecosystems operate. This topic has both academic and applied relevance. Thus, in order to forecast the implications of perturbations in a site on both the species present and ecosystem functioning, whether direct (e.g. pollution or physical disturbance) or indirect (e.g. climate change), methods need to be available that can be used to ascertain what organisms are present in a sample. This book provides an authoritative manual of the techniques now used for different organisms. It has been developed as part of UNESCO's contribution to the DIVERSITAS programme and implemented through the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS). Soil organisms and those inhabiting freshwater and marine sediments, from microbes...

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