Baskin

Praise for Under Ground “With fabulous prose, Yvonne Baskin takes us through an ecological looking glass to the

Baskin

SCIENCE / ENVIRONMENT

wonderland of underground . . . required reading (for all) made delightful.” —Thomas E. Lovejoy, President, H. John Heinz III

“Nematodes, slime molds and fungi are unexpectedly fascinating in this enjoyable tour of a new ecological frontier.” —Publishers Weekly “At last, proper attention is given to the vast biomass and biodiversity at our feet, humanity’s absolute dependence upon this layer of life, and the need to expand science and conservation to save it. This is a well-written and important book.” —E.O. Wilson, University Research Professor Emeritus, Harvard University “An excellent book . . . opens up the black box of soil to reveal the wonders of its workings.” —TRENDS in Ecology and Evolution “Engaging . . . rich and descriptive . . . Baskin’s book successfully gives a face to the rapidly changing field of soil ecology.” —BioScience “Under Ground will be both fascinating for laypersons and extremely useful for scientists like myself who understand how critical the soil is but know too little about it.” —Paul R. Ehrlich, Bing Professor of Population Studies, Stanford University and co-author of One with Nineveh: Politics, Consumption, and the Human Future

YVONNE BASKIN is the author of The Work of Nature: How the Diversity of Life Sustains Us and A Plague of Rats and Rubbervines: The Growing Threat of Species Invasions. Her articles have appeared in Science, Natural History, Discover, and numerous other publications.

Jacket design by Brian C. Barth Jacket photos: Acoptolabrus gehinii nishijimai (Imura, 1991), photo by Roman Rejzek; 200 species of mites, photo by Valerie Behan-Pelletier, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. Interior Illustrations by Joyce Powzyk

ISBN 1-59726-118-1

90000

9 781597 261180

Under Ground

Center for Science, Economics, and the Environment