The soil is the work-place of farmers and gardeners, but it is also an environment inhabited by insects that can leap into the air to a record height, multilegged scavengers that are vital to the decomposition of matter and the long, thin, entwining strands of thousands of species of fungi. It is perhaps one of the great unsung disappearing natural resources, with over 10 million tonnes being destroyed every year worldwide. Although it pays a vital role in the functioning of the world, it has often been overlooked, mainly because it contains a huge range of different fields, all of which have become specialists in their own right. This book brings together specialists in each field to give a broad overview of the advances that have been made since Sir John Rusell's The World of the Soil was published in this series in 1947. The first two chapters introduce the physical structure of the soil, the next four chapters deal with the specific animals and plants and how they can exploit this environment and the final four chapters describe how these animals interact and how man has used and abused the soil in his striving to gain more and more from this resource.