Soil Microflora

Contents: Preface. 1. Soil microflora: a general aspect/Mukesh Kumar, Anjali Khare and Rajan Kumar Gupta. 2. Distribution of cyanobacteria in coastal sandy soils and alumina mine waste soils of Orissa/S.P. Adhikary and Pramila Tripathy. 3. Significance of soil microorganisms in sustainable agriculture/Shalini Singh, Rachana Srivastava and Y.V. Singh. 4. Impact of herbicides on cyanobacterial flora of rice fields/Mihir Kumar Das. 5. Mycorrhizae: benefits and practical applications in forest management/K.P. Singh, P. Srinivas and Bijendra Kumar. 6. Role of earthworms in soil biology and crop production/Y.V. Singh, Shalini Singh and Rachana Srivastava. 7. Diversity of soil lichens in India/Roshni Khare, D.K. Upreti, Sanjeeva Nayaka and R.K. Gupta. 8. Bacterial and fungal diversity in Alkali affected soil/Kaushal Pratap Singh, Dheeraj Mohan and Seema Bhadauria. 9. Frankia-actinorhizal symbiosis: an overview/Amrita Srivastava, Anju Singh, Satya Shila Singh and Arun Kumar Mishra. 10. Cyanobacterial surfactants enhance the fertility and stability of tropical soils/Usha Pandey. 11. Soil denitrifying bacteria and environmental factors regulating denitrification in soil/Paromita Ghosh. 12. Molecular mechanism of nitrogen fixation in Rhizobium/Ravi Rajhans and Rajan Kumar Gupta. 13. Role of soil microorganisms in nutrition and health of higher plants/Dheeraj Mohan, Preetesh Kumari, Kaushal Pratap Singh and Anuradha Chauhan. 14. Soil microflora and their impact on soil health/Narendra Kumar, Pawan Kumar and Surendra Singh. 15. Soil microbes and their importance/Anjana K. Vala and Anita Suresh Kumar. 16. Freeze recovery and nitrogenase activity in Antarctic cyanobacterium Nostoc commune/Rajan Kumar Gupta and Mukesh Kumar. 17. Seasonal variation in root colonization and rhizosphere soil spore population of mycorrhiza species in various plants growing in alkali soil/Kaushal Pratap Singh, Dheeraj Mohan, Rekha Yadav, Seema Bhadauria and Chatar Singh. 18. Nitrogen fixing soil microflora/Yashveer Singh. 19. Agrobacterium: a natural genetic engineer/Ashutosh Bahuguna, Madhuri K. Lily and Koushalya Dangwal. 20. Association of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizas with ornamental plant petunia/Deepak Vyas, Deepali Bilthare, Pramod Kumar Richhariya and Rajan Kumar Gupta. 21. Cyanobacterial biodiversity in the soils of Kumaon region/Anjali Khare, Mukesh Kumar and Promod Kumar. 22. Ecological diversities in soil microorganisms/P.B. Tiwary. 23. Biocontrol of leaf rot of pan caused by Phytophthora parasitica var. Piperina by native fungal species/Deepak Vyas, Rajesh Yadav and Rajan Kumar Gupta. 24. Azotobacter: recent advances/Sangeeta Paul and Bishwajeet Paul. 25. Prospects and potential of Azolla-Anabaena system/G. Abraham, Sudheer Saxena and Dolly Wattal Dhar. 26. Ecological and biotechnological relevance of cyanobacteria/Kaushal Kishore Choudhary. 27. Use of Azolla as cheap and sustainable source of feed and other-utilities for future/G. Abraham, Raghubir Shah and Dolly Wattal Dhar. 28. Soil micro-diversity and its importance in agriculture/G.K. Sharma. 29. Soil microflora of Rohilkhand division/Iqbal Habib and U.K. Chaturvedi. 30. Role of cyanobacteria in amelioration of soil/Pranita Jaiswal. Index.

When we are standing on the ground, we are really standing on roof-top of other world. Soil might look “dirt” but it is far more interestings; living in the soil or plant roots, bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, algae, lichens, protozoan, nematodes etc. These exist in great diversity among various microorganisms and even with in a group of microorganisms, dependng on the habitat and environmental factors. Soils are formed from a stew of geological ingredients or parent material (rock and mineral), water and billions of organisms. The interaction between climate, parent of soil properties that are unique to the soil type and climate. It has been proposed that a micorbe should be considered as a new state symbol in the company of state animals, the state bird, state flower, state fish and state insect. The state microbe will be a living symbol of an organism that reflect the culture and heritage of people and will contribute mightily to the state’s economy. The present Volume is compendium of wide ranging modern topics on soil microbiology. It is an assemblage of the up-to-date information of rapid advances and developments taking place in the field of soil microbilogy. The book is a unique compilation of 30 Chapters which discuss exhaustive studies on algae, fungi, lichens, mycorrhizae, bacteria, virus and other microroorganisms. This book will be a mile-stone in the field of soil microbiology, because it will open a new vista in the field of soil microbiology and its applied aspects. The authors have done a tremendous job of synthesizing all the recent and up-to-date information. The present book aimed to emphasise on diverse aspects of soil microflora. The various information incorporated in the book by authors who are internationally acknowledged experts in the microbiology and are the eminent scientists of the Country, they have made sincere efforts to make their papers as recent and comprehensive as possible. The book has been framed with the intention of providing a sufficient depth of the subject to satisfy the needs at a level which will be comprehensive and interesting. The book will be useful to the students, theacher, scientists and researchers from the different branches of soil microbiology. It is hoped that the will fully meet the objectives of catering the needs of the students and researchers in the fields of Botany, Microbiology, Soil Science, Agricultural Science and Forestry of all Indian Universities. (jacket)