Soil invertebrates make up diverse communities living in soil pores and on the soil surface, digging burrows and tunnels, processing organic matter and interacting with microbes. Soil is also a habitat of growing concern as many human activities cause soil degradation. This book documents the evolutionary history of soil invertebrates and their multitude of adaptations. Soil invertebrates live in a twilight zone: some have gone down to seek stability, constancy and rest, others have gone up and faced environmental variation, heat, cold and activity. And it all happens in a few decimetres, millimetres sometimes. Check out the wonderful life below ground in this book.
Author(s): Nico M. van Straalen
Publisher: CRC Press/Science Publishers
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 406
City: Boca Raton
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Preface
Table of Contents
1. The Selective Environment of the Soil
1.1 The Ghilarov-Kennedy-Gisin-Bouché hypothesis
1.2 Heterogeneity of soil temperature in space and time
1.3 Soil pore water and acidity
1.4 Bulk density, pores and burrows
1.5 Humus forms
1.6 The rhizosphere
1.7 Microbial communities
2. Evolution of Terrestrialized Invertebrate Lineages
2.1 Animals of the pore water: nematodes and tardigrades
2.2 Groundwater fauna: so many crustaceans
2.3 From crustaceans to insects: Collembola and other apterygotes
2.4 Soil and surface-active insects
2.5 Terrestrializations among isopods, amphipods and decapods
2.6 Soil invertebrates with many legs
2.7 Spiders, mites and the like
2.8 Flatworms, earthworms and potworms
2.9 Snails and slugs, finally
2.10 Terrestrialization scenarios
3. Populations in Space and Time
3.1 Population density and population size
3.2 Production and turnover
3.3 The importance of biogeographic history
3.4 Limiting and density-regulating factors
3.5 Iteroparity and indeterminate growth
3.6 Life-histories in the soil profile
3.7 Environmental tuning
3.8 Spatial distribution and aggregation
3.9 Movement and dispersal
3.10 Genetic population structure and isolation by distance
4. Reproduction and Development
4.1 Asexual reproduction
4.2 Parthenogenesis
4.3 Parthenogenetic worms
4.4 Parthenogenesis in Collembola
4.5 Parthenogenesis in oribatid mites
4.6 Reproductive manipulators
4.7 Hermaphroditism
4.8 The great switch to direct development
4.9 Endless forms of limbs, most beautiful
4.10 The mantle cavity of snails
5. Mate Choice, Brood Care and Predatory Behaviour
5.1 Indirect sperm transfer
5.2 Mating dances of pseudoscorpions
5.3 Mate choice in spiders and mites
5.4 Selective spermatophore handling in springtails
5.5 Courtship in bristletails, silverfish and crickets
5.6 Sexual selection in dung beetles
5.7 Mating behaviour of hermaphroditic earthworms
5.8 Bizarre reproductive behaviours in land snails
5.9 Brood care and the origin of social behaviour
5.10 Predatory behaviour
6. Physiological Adaptation and Microbial Interactions
6.1 Patterns of metabolic rate
6.2 Temperature responses
6.3 Cold hardiness
6.4 Drought resistance and anhydrobiosis
6.5 Osmoregulation
6.6 Surviving the heat
6.7 Dealing with toxins
6.8 Adaptation to heavy metals
6.9 Parasites, pathogens and symbionts
6.10 The soil invertebrate gut microbiome
6.11 Horizontal gene transfer
7. A Kaleidoscope of Adaptations
8. Annexes
8.1 Summary data and literature references for annual mean densities
8.2 Summary of demographic theory showing how production is calculated from population structure
8.3 Data and literature references on P/B ratios
8.4 Normalizing measured metabolic rates to reference body weight and temperature
8.5 References for host-parasite associations
References
Index
