Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. The new global nitrogen cycle -- 2. Plant Associations with Mycorrhizae and Rhizobium; Evolutionary origins and divergence of strategies in recruiting soil microbes -- 3. Arbuscular mycorrhizas and N acquisition by plants -- 4. Ectomycorrhiza and nitrogen provision to the host tree -- 5. Proteins in the rhizosphere: another example of plant-microbe exchange -- 6. Actinorhizal symbioses -- 7. Two in the Far North: The Alder-Frankia Symbiosis, with an Alaskan Case Study -- 8. The path of Rhizobia: from a free-living soil bacterium to root nodulation -- 9. Exploiting Mycorrhizae and Rhizobium Symbioses to Recover Seriously Degraded Soils -- 10. Nitrogen: Give and Take from Phylloplane Microbes -- 11. Epi and Endo-phytic microbes: N2-fixing endophytes of grasses and cereals -- 12. Effects of Insect Herbivores on the Nitrogen Economy of Plants -- 13. Plant Defense Proteins that inhibit Insect Peptidases -- 14. Nutrient acquisition and concentration by ant symbionts: the incidence and importance of biological interactions to plant nutrition -- 15. The functions of flavonoids in legume-rhizobia interactions -- 16. Plant hormones and initiation of legume nodulation and arbuscular mycorrhization -- 17. Nitric Oxide as a signal molecule in intra- and extra-cellular bacteria-plant interactions.

"Ecological Aspects of Nitrogen Acquisition explores not only how plants compete for nitrogen in complex ecological communities The book also looks in greater detail at the associations plants recruit with other organisms, ranging from soil microbes to arthropods, as nitrogen acquisition strategies, and how these contribute to individual and evolutionary fitness. The book is divided into four sections, each addressing an important set of relationships of plants with the environment and how this impacts the plant's ability to compete successfully for nitrogen, often the most growth-limiting nutrient. Ecological Aspects of Nitrogen Acquisition provides thorough coverage of this important topic, and will be a vitally important resource for plant scientists, agronomists, and ecologists"--Provided by publisher.