Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preface / C. E. Pankhurst, B. M. Doube and V. V. S. R. Gupta -- 1. Defining and Assessing Soil Health and Sustainable Productivity / J. W. Doran and W. Safley -- 2. Soil Health: its Relationship to Ecosystem Health / D. J. Rapport, J. McCullum and M. H. Miller -- 3. Rationale for Developing Bioindicators of Soil Health / E. T. Elliott -- 4. Bioindicators: Perspectives and Potential Value for Landusers, Researchers and Policy Makers / J. M. Lynch and L. F. Elliott -- 5. Soil Microbial Biomass, Activity and Nutrient Cycling as Indicators of Soil Health / G. P. Sparling -- 6. Soil Enzyme Activities as Integrative Indicators of Soil Health / R. P. Dick -- 7. Soil Microflora as Bioindicators of Soil Health / M. M. Roper and K. M. Ophel-Keller -- 8. Potential Use of Plant Root Pathogens as Biodicators of Soil Health / D. Hornby and G. L. Bateman -- 9. Soil Microfauna as Bioindicators of Soil Health / V. V. S. R. Gupta and G. W. Yeates.

10. Community Structure of Soil Arthropods as a Bioindicator of Soil Health / N. M. van Straalen -- 11. Can the Abundance or Activity of Soil Macrofauna be used to Indicate the Biological Health of Soils? / B. M. Doube and O. Schmidt -- 12. Biodiversity of Soil Organisms as an Indicator of Soil Health / C. E. Pankhurst -- 13. Biomonitoring of Soil Health by Plants / T. Pandolfini, P. Gremigni and R. Gabbrielli -- 14. Bioindicators to Detect Contamination of Soils with Special Reference to Heavy Metals / G. N. Mhatre and C. E. Pankhurst -- 15. Chemical and Molecular Approaches for Rapid Assessment of the Biological Status of Soils / D. C. White and S. J. Macnaughton -- 16. Use of Genetically Modified Microbial Biosensors for Soil Ecotoxicity Testing / G. I. Paton, E. A. S. Rattray and C. D. Campbell [et al.] -- 17. Biological Indicators of Soil Health: Synthesis / C. E. Pankhurst, B. M. Doube and V. V. S. R. Gupta.