Soil Invertebrates Kaleidoscope of Adaptations

About this book

Soil Invertebrates: Kaleidoscope of Adaptations places the biodiversity of soil invertebrates in an evolutionary framework, showing the various adaptations to the soil environment. Species radiations are discussed for each of the terrestrializations leading to a lineage of soil invertebrates. Phylogenetic analyses, now becoming available for most of these groups thanks to DNA sequencing, show monophyly of complete soil-living groups in some cases and multiple independent soil adaptations in others.

Soil Invertebrates: Kaleidoscope of Adaptations includes many classical methods of soil animal enumeration and community surveys developed in the 1970s, which can now be supplemented by physiological and molecular study techniques.

Contents

- The Selective Environment of the Soil
- Evolution of Terrestrialized Invertebrate Lineages
- Populations in Space and Time
- Reproduction and Development
- Mate Choice, Brood Care and Predatory Behaviour
- Physiological Adaptation and Microbial Interactions
- A Kaleidoscope of Adaptations
- Annexes

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Biography

Nico M. van Straalen is Em. Professor of Animal Ecology at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where he headed a research program on the ecology of soil invertebrates. He specialized in ecotoxicology, molecular ecology and evolutionary biology. He became mainly known for his contributions to environmental risk assessment of soil pollution but has many other research interests like human evolution and the origin of life. This book builds on his expertise on springtails, isopods, mites and earthworms.