Soil zoology or pedozoology is the study of animals living fully or partially in the
soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...
(
soil fauna
Soil biology is the study of microbial and faunal activity and ecology in soil.
Soil life, soil biota, soil fauna, or edaphon is a collective term that encompasses all organisms that spend a significant portion of their life cycle within a soil ...
). The field of study was developed in the 1940s by
Mercury Ghilarov Mercury Sergeyevich Ghilarov (also written as Merkurii Giliarov, 22 February 1912 – 6 March 1985) was a Soviet soil scientist who was a pioneer of soil biology, the life in the soil including insects and other small invertebrates. Ghilarov laid em ...
in Russia. Ghilarov noted inverse relationships between size and numbers of soil organisms. He also suggested that soil included water, air and solid phases and that soil may have provided the transitional environment between aquatic and terrestrial life. The phrase was apparently first used in the English speaking world at a conference of soil zoologists presenting their research at the
University of Nottingham
The University of Nottingham is a public university, public research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as University College Nottingham in 1881, and was granted a royal charter in 1948. The University of Nottingham belongs t ...
, UK, in 1955.
[Soil Zoology. Proceedings of the University of Nottingham, Second Easter School in Agricultural Science, 1955. by D. Keith McE. Kevan.]
See also
*
Biogeochemical cycle
A biogeochemical cycle (or more generally a cycle of matter) is the pathway by which a chemical substance cycles (is turned over or moves through) the biotic and the abiotic compartments of Earth. The biotic compartment is the biosphere and the ...
References
Bibliography
* Safwat H. Shakir Hanna, ed, 2004, ''Soil Zoology For Sustainable Development In The 21st century: A Festschrift in Honour of Prof. Samir I. Ghabbour on the Occasion of His 70th Birthday'',
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...
, .
External links
D. Keith McE. Kevan, Ethnoentomologist ''
Cultural Entomology Digest
Human interactions with insects include both a wide variety of uses, whether practical such as for food, textiles, and dyestuffs, or symbolic, as in art, music, and literature, and negative interactions including serious damage to crops and exten ...
'' 3
Soil biology
Edaphology
Soil science
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