Contents -- Editors -- Abbreviations -- Part I: Approaches to Defining, Monitoring, Evaluating and Managing Soil Quality -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Defining Soil Quality -- 3 Monitoring and Evaluating Soil Quality -- 4 Managing Soil Quality -- 5 Concluding Remarks -- Part II: Selected Methods -- 6 Microbial Biomass and Numbers -- 6.1 Estimating Soil Microbial Biomass -- 6.2 Microbial Biomass Measurements by Fumigation-Extraction -- 6.3 Substrate-induced Respiration -- 6.4 Enumeration and Biovolume Determination of Microbial Cells -- 7 Soil Microbial Activity -- 7.1 Estimating Soil Microbial Activity -- 7.2 Soil Respiration -- 7.3 Soil Nitrogen Mineralization -- 7.4 Nitrification in Soil -- 7.5 Thymidine and Leucine Incorporation to Assess Bacterial Growth Rate -- 7.6 N[Sub(2)]O Emissions and Denitrification from Soil -- 7.7 Enzyme Activity Profiles and Soil Quality -- 8 Soil Microbial Diversity and Community Composition -- 8.1 Estimating Soil Microbial Diversity and Community Composition -- 8.2 Soil Microbial Community Fingerprinting Based on Total Community DNA or RNA -- 8.3 Phospholipid Fatty Acid (PLFA) Analyses -- 8.4 Substrate Utilization in Biolog[Sup(TM)] Plates for Analysis of CLPP -- 9 Plant-Microbe Interactions and Soil Quality -- 9.1 Microbial Ecology of the Rhizosphere -- 9.2 Nodulating Symbiotic Bacteria and Soil Quality -- 9.3 Contribution of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza to Soil Quality and Terrestrial Ecotoxicology -- 9.4 Concepts and Methods to Assess the Phytosanitary Quality of Soils -- 9.5 Free-living Plant-beneficial Microorganisms and Soil Quality -- 10 Census of Microbiological Methods for Soil Quality -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- Z.