Marriage of the mineral world and the organic world: Introduction
How soil forms from rocks and weather
Plant roots and their bacterial partners
Plant roots and their fungal partners
Where roots meet rocks and minerals
Plant roots and their animal partners: Life in a dark and densely populated world
Soil fertility and the formation of humus
Contribution of animals to soil structure
Diggers and tillers of the soil
How plants and animals affect the layers of a soil
Members of the soil community: Microbes: Eubacteria and archaebacteria
Chytrids, hyphochytrids, oomycetes
Animal kingdom: Invertebrates-animals without backbones
Animals without backbones or jointed legs: Flatworms
Arthropods other than insects: Mites and springtails
True scorpions, windscorpions, whipscorpions and schizomids
Insects: Most abundant arthropods: Jumping bristletails and silverfish
Camel crickets and mole crickets
Short-horned grasshoppers
Big-eyed bugs and burrower bugs
Aphids, phylloxerans, and coccoids
Cicadas and rhipicerid beetles
Rove beetles and ground beetles
Short-winged mold beetles
Glowworms, fireflies, and lightningbugs
Carrion beetles, burying beetles, and hister beetles
Wireworms and click beetles
Scarabs, weevils, and their grubs
Variegated mud-loving beetles
March flies, crane flies, and soldier flies
Digger bees and velvet ants
Vertebrates: Vertebrates other than mammals: Salamanders
Mammals: Woodchucks and skunks
Ground squirrels and chipmunks
Working in partnership with creatures of the soil: Preventing erosion
Avoiding excessive use of fertilizers
Avoiding salt-encrusted soils
Maintaining soil structure
Discouraging invasion of soils by exotic species
Composting as an antidote to soil abuse .
