A number of excellent textbooks on general ecology are currently available but' to date' none have been dedicated to the study of soil ecology. This is important because the soil' as the 'epidermis' of our planet' is the major component of the terrestrial biosphere. In the present age' it is difficult to understand how one could be interested in general ecology without having some knowledge of the soil and further' to study the soil without taking into account its biological components and ecological setting. It is this deficiency that the two authors' Patrick Lavelle and Alister Spain' have...