Soil Microbiology and Sustainable Crop Production
Soils into which crop plants root and from which they obtain essential minerals and water contain huge arrays of microbes. Many have highly beneficial effects on crop growth and productivity, others are pathogens causing diseases and losses to yield and q
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Geoffrey R. Dixon • Emma L. Tilston Editors
Soil Microbiology and Sustainable Crop Production
Editors Geoffrey R. Dixon Centre for Horticulture & Landscape School of Biological Sciences University of Reading, Whiteknights Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6AS, UK [email protected]
Emma L. Tilston Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre Scottish Enterprise Technology Park, East Kilbride, G75 0QF, UK [email protected]
ISBN 978-90-481-9478-0 e-ISBN 978-90-481-9479-7 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-9479-7 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2010934733 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Cover illustration: Background: Sustainable crop production as represented by bed production of salad leaves with adjacent wildlife refuge and trees (copyright: Geoff Dixon) Small left photo: Three roots of swede showing galling caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae (Clubroot); (copyright: Geoff Dixon) Small middle photo: Roots of pea plant showing nodules caused by nitrifying bacteria (copyright: Oksana Shtark) Small right photo: Three roots of winter wheat showing moderate to severe damage caused by Gaeumannomyces graminis var. tritici (Take-All) (copyright: Emma Tilston). Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
Preface
Nothing is so fatal to the progress of the human mind as to suppose ........ that there are no new worlds to conquer. (Humphrey Davy, English engineer and physicist, public lecture 1810)
Soil and in particular its microbial diversity remains largely an unexplored world. A few researchers have provided insights into the outer edges of this world but it remains mostly unknown and inhabited by a huge diversity of organisms whose biology is open to speculation. Yet it is this world and its inhabitants which arguably hold many of the properties which will enable mankind to surmount the huge problems resulting from a burgeoning population and diminishing land supply. Increasing food production in parallel with conserving and protecting our environment while allowing producers adequate financial returns are the primary challenges facing agricultural science research in the twenty-first century. These factors of food production, environmental protection and producers’ profit form a triangle which defines agrarian sustainability. Sustainably raising crop production will only be achieved by gaining far greater understanding of the physics and chemistry of the soil environment in which roots grow and the impact of benign and pathogenic microbes on them. It is at least as important that we understand
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