Soil: The Living Matrix -- Definition of "Heavy Metals" and Their Role in Biological Systems -- Soil Microbial Diversity in Relation to Heavy Metals -- Uptake and Effect of Heavy Metals on the Plant Detoxification Cascade in the Presence and Absence of Organic Pollutants -- Arbuscular Mycorrhiza, Heavy Metal,and Salt Tolerance -- Quantitative Analyses of Trace Elements in Environmental Samples: Options and (Im)possibilities -- At the Crossroads of Metal Hyperaccumulation and Glucosinolates: Is There Anything Out There? -- Plants Under Heavy Metal Stress in Saline Environments -- Utilizing Microbial Community Structure and Function to Evaluate the Health of Heavy Metal Polluted Soils -- Streptomycete Heavy Metal Resistance: Extracellular and Intracellular Mechanisms -- Effects of Heavy Metals on Soil Enzyme Activities -- Effect of Heavy Metals on Saprotrophic Soil Fungi -- Copper-Containing Oxidases: Occurrence in Soil Microorganisms, Properties, and Applications -- Biomethylation of Heavy Metals in Soil and Terrestrial Invertebrates -- Phytostabilization of Lead-Polluted Sites by Native Plants -- Impact of Heavy Metals on Sugarcane -- Effects of Earthworms on the Availability and Removal of Heavy Metals in Soil -- Phytoremediation of Heavy Metal Contaminated Soils -- Remediation of Heavy Metal Contaminated Tropical Land.