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Healthy soils are essential for sustainable agricultural development and soil health requires careful assessment with increasing societal concern over environmentally friendly agricultural development. Soil health is the capacity of soil to function within ecological boundaries to sustain productivity, maintain environmental quality, and promote plant and animal health. Physical, chemical and biological indicators are used to evaluate soil health; the biological indicators include microbes, protozoa and metazoa. Nematodes are the most abundant metazoa and they vary in their sensitivity to pollutants and environmental disturbance. Soil nematode communities are useful biological indicators of soil health, with community characteristics such as abundance, diversity, community structure and metabolic footprint all closely correlated with the soil environment. The community size, complexity and structure reflect the condition of the soil. Both free-living and plant-parasitic nematodes are effective ecological indicators, contributing to nutrient cycling and having important roles as primary, secondary and tertiary consumers in food webs. Tillage inversion, cropping patterns and nutrient management may have strong effects on soil nematodes, with changes in soil nematode communities reflecting soil disturbance. Some free-living nematodes serve as biological models to test soil condition in the laboratory and because of these advantages soil nematodes are increasingly being used as biological indicators of soil health.

Freshwater Algae: Identification and Use as Bioindicators provides a comprehensive guide to temperate freshwater algae, with additional information on key species in relation to environmental characteristics and implications for aquatic management. The book uniquely combines practical material on techniques and water quality management with basic algal taxonomy and the role of algae as bioindicators.  Freshwater Algae: Identification and Use as Bioindicators is divided into two parts. Part I describes techniques for the sampling, measuring and observation of algae and then looks at the role of algae as bioindicators and the implications for aquatic management. Part II provides the identification of major genera and 250 important species.  Well illustrated with numerous original illustrations and photographs, this reference work is essential reading for all practitioners and researchers concerned with assessing and managing the aquatic environment.

'The ability of the birds to show us the consequences of our own actions is among their most important and least appreciated attributes. Despite the free advice of the birds, we do not pay attention', said Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1947. From ice-dependent penguins of Antarctica to songbirds that migrate across the Sahara, birds' responses provide early warning signs of the impact of climate change. Winged Sentinels: Birds and Climate Change uses colourful examples to show how particular groups of birds face heightened threats from climate change and to explore how we can help birds adapt in a warming world. Generously illustrated with colour photographs, the book is a fascinating insight into what climate change means for birds, and the potential consequences of ignoring these warning signs.

On the basis of long-term (1964-2011) research, we tested the hypothesis that the zooplankton community has a highly indicative value in assessing the ecosystem and trophic state of water bodies. Basing on the results of our study and taking into account relevant data from numerous zooplankton studies, we can conclude that the zooplankton measures deserving to be used as indicators in the monitoring of Lake Võrtsjärv (and other similar eutrophic water bodies) could be the following: i) indicatory species of eutrophic waters [Anuraeopsis fissa (Gosse), Keratella tecta (Gosse), Trichocerca rousseleti (Voigt), Chydorus sphaericus (O. F. Müller), Bosmina longirostris (O. F. Müller)]; ii) indicatory species of oligo-mesotrophic waters [Conochilus unicornis Rousselet, Kellicottia longispina (Kellicott), Ploesoma hudsoni (Imhof), Bosmina berolinensis Imhof, Eudiaptomus gracilis (Sars)]; iii) number and diversity of species; iv) mean zooplankter weight, mean cladoceran weight, mean rotifer weight and mean copepod weight; v) rotifer abundance; vi) the share (%) of rotifers in total zooplankton abundance; vii) the ratio of abundance of large cladocerans to abundance of all cladocerans (NLargeClad/NClad); viii) the ratio of calanoid copepod abundance to cyclopoid copepod abundance (NCal/NCycl); ix) the ratio of crustacean abundance to rotifer abundance (NCrust/NRot ). The results of our study show that several zooplankton parameters are among the biological quality elements (BQE) deserving to be included in the Water Frame Directive system.

Developments in soil biology and in methods to characterize soil organic carbon can potentially deliver novel soil quality indicators that can help identify management practices able to sustain soil productivity and environmental resilience. This work aimed at synthesizing results regarding the suitability of a range of soil biological and biochemical properties as novel soil quality indicators for agricultural management. The soil properties, selected through a published literature review, comprised different labile organic carbon fractions [hydrophilic dissolved organic carbon, dissolved organic carbon, permanganate oxidizable carbon (POXC), hot water extractable carbon and particulate organic matter carbon], soil disease suppressiveness measured using a Pythium-Lepidium bioassay, nematode communities characterized by amplicon sequencing and qPCR, and microbial community level physiological profiling measured with MicroRespTM. Prior studies tested the sensitivity of each of the novel indicators to tillage and organic matter addition in ten European long-term field experiments (LTEs) and assessed their relationships with pre-existing soil quality indicators of soil functioning. Here, the results of these previous studies are brought together and interpreted relative to each other and to the broader body of literature on soil quality assessment. Reduced tillage increased carbon availability, disease suppressiveness, nematode richness and diversity, the stability and maturity of the food web, and microbial activity and functional diversity. Organic matter addition played a weaker role in enhancing soil quality, possibly due to the range of composition of the organic matter inputs used in the LTEs. POXC was the indicator that discriminated best between soil management practices, followed by nematode indices based on functional characteristics. Structural equation modeling shows that POXC has a central role in nutrient retention/supply, carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation, erosion control and disease regulation/suppression. The novel indicators proposed here have great potential to improve existing soil quality assessment schemes. Their feasibility of application is discussed and needs for future research are outlined.

Nematodes are the most widespread multicellular animals in nature and analysis of nematodes in terrestrial, freshwater and marine environments, as well as their role and function in ecosystems, can be used for environmental monitoring. Compared to other organisms, they offer the greatest potential as bioindicators and can be used to study gene expression in relation to environmental challenges, to monitor changing impacts on the environment and in laboratory ecotoxicity tests.This volume will address classical and molecular approaches to nematode community analysis, the contemporary field of nematodes as biosensors, as well as geonomic and post geonomic aspects of nematode bioindicators. In addition, case studies will stress the importance of these bioindicators and demonstrate the commercial potential of these technologies. Providing a timely review of research into nematodes and environmental monitoring, this book will be essential reading for researchers in nematology and environmental science.

Integrating research into freshwater biodiversity and the role of keystone species, this fascinating book presents freshwater crayfish as representatives of human-exacerbated threats to biodiversity and conservation. It uses examples from these and other large decapod invertebrates to explore how communities function and are controlled, alongside the implications of human demands and conflicts over limited resources, notably the severe impacts on biodiversity. The discussion is structured around three key topics – the present situation of crayfish in world freshwater ecosystems, the applications of science to conservation management and knowledge transfer for successful crayfish management. It outlines the historic exploitation of crayfish, addressing the problems caused by invasive alien forms and explaining the importance of correct identification when dealing with conservation issues. Offering a global perspective on freshwater systems, the book ultimately highlights how the conservation of such large and long-lived species will help protect ecosystem quality in the future.

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Soil quality is the competence of soil to perform necessary functions that are able to maintain animal and plant productivity of the soil. Soil consists of various physical, chemical, and biological parameters, and all these parameters are involved in the critical functioning of soil. There is a need for continuous assessment of soil quality as soil is a complex and dynamic constituent of Earth’s biosphere that is continuously changing by natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Any perturbations in the soil cause disturbances in the physical (soil texture, bulk density, etc.), chemical (pH, salinity, organic carbon, etc.), and biological (microbes and enzymes) parameters. These physical, chemical, and biological parameters can serve as indicators for soil quality assessment. However, soil quality assessment cannot be possible by evaluating only one parameter out of physical, chemical, or biological. So, there is an emergent need to establish a minimum dataset (MDS) which shall include physical, chemical, and biological parameters to assess the quality of the given soil. This review attempts to describe various physical, chemical, and biological parameters, combinations of which can be used in the establishment of MDS.

This is the second edition of Freshwater Algae; the popular guide to temperate freshwater algae. This book uniquely combines practical information on sampling and experimental techniques with an explanation of basic algal taxonomy plus a key to identify the more frequently-occurring organisms.  Fully revised,  it describes major bioindicator species in relation to key environmental parameters and their implications for aquatic management. This second edition includes: the same clear writing style as the first edition to provide an easily accessible source of information on algae within standing and flowing waters, and the problems they may cause the identification of 250 algae using a key based on readily observable morphological features that can be readily observed under a conventional light microscope up-to-date information on the molecular determination of taxonomic status, analytical microtechniques and the potential role of computer analysis in algal biology upgrades to numerous line drawings to include more detail and extra species information, full colour photographs of live algae – including many new images from the USA and China Bridging the gap between simple identification texts and highly specialised research volumes, this book is used both as a comprehensive introduction to the subject and as a laboratory manual. The new edition will be invaluable to aquatic biologists for algal identification, and for all practitioners and researchers working within aquatic microbiology in industry and academia.