Bioindicator Systems for Soil Pollution

How is one to make good, cost-effective decisions about the management or remediation of polluted soils? The application of bioindication techniques may provide information on the availability of contaminants, and may thus help to support management decisions. In addition, the repeated application of bioindicators may reveal temporal trends and the spatial extent of the ecological effects of contaminants. This book presents a set of new approaches to the development of bioindication systems for the soil environment. The emphasis is on the use of invertebrates, as part of the soil life-support system. One of the book's main messages is that bioindicators should integrate information derived from invertebrate communities, micro-organisms and soil processes. It discusses general ecotoxicological approaches, community and systems approaches, as well as various case studies in Eastern and Western Europe and the USA.