Proximal Soil Sensing

This book reports on developments in Proximal Soil Sensing (PSS) and high resolution digital soil mapping. PSS has become a multidisciplinary area of study that aims to develop field-based techniques for collecting information on the soil from close by, or within, the soil. Amongst others, PSS involves the use of optical, geophysical, electrochemical, mathematical and statistical methods. The book in particular covers soil sensor sampling, proximal soil sensor development and use, sensor calibrations, prediction methods for large data sets, applications of proximal soil sensing, and high-resolution digital soil mapping.

Tree Species Effects on Soils: Implications for Global Change

This book examines the state of knowledge of the effects of tree species on soils, considering evidence from broad natural gradients in species distributions, and from "common garden" experiments where several species have been planted on the same site. Topics include the influence of the chemistry of forest litter on soil biogeochemistry, the dependence of soil biotic communities on tree species, and the interactions of physical, chemical and biological factors in determining the overall effects of different species. Case studies from across North America, Europe, Russia, South America and Australia illustrate the key role played by tree species in determining long-term development and sustainability of soils.

Guidelines for Surveying Soil and Land Resources

Guidelines for Surveying Soil and Land Resources promotes the development and implementation of consistent methods and standards for conducting soil and land resource surveys in Australia. These surveys are primarily field operations that aim to identify, describe, map and evaluate the various kinds of soil or land resources in specific areas. The advent of geographic information systems, global positioning systems, airborne gamma radiometric remote sensing, digital terrain analysis, simulation modeling, efficient statistical analysis and internet-based delivery of information has dramatically changed the scene in the past two decades. As successor to the Australian Soil and Land Survey Handbook: Guidelines for Conducting Surveys, this authoritative guide incorporates these new methods and techniques for supporting natural resource management.

Notes from the Ground: Science, Soil, and Society in the American Countryside

Notes from the Ground examines the cultural conditions that brought agriculture and science together in nineteenth-century America. Integrating the history of science, environmental history, and science studies, the book shows how and why agrarian Americans—yeoman farmers, gentleman planters, politicians, and policy makers alike—accepted, resisted, and shaped scientific ways of knowing the land. By detailing the changing perceptions of soil treatment, Benjamin Cohen shows that the credibility of new soil practices grew not from the arrival of professional chemists, but out of an existing ideology of work, knowledge, and citizenship.

Soil Heavy Metals

The topics presented include: the general role of heavy metals in biological soil systems; the relation of inorganic and organic pollutions; heavy metal, salt tolerance and combined effects with salinity; effects on abuscular mycorrhizal and on saprophytic soil fungi; heavy metal resistance by streptomycetes; trace element determination of environmental samples; the use of microbiological communities as indicators; phytostabilization of lead polluted sites by native plants; effects of soil earthworms on removal of heavy metals and the remediation of heavy metal contaminated tropical land.

Manual of Methods for Soil and Land Evaluation

The goal of the manual is to supply an operational tool for pedologists, agronomists, environmentalists, and all of the other specialists who carry out land evaluation for agriculture and forestry or, more generally, stakeholders and policy makers who make decisions at the local level based on the knowledge of the nature of soil.

The Use of Nutrients in Crop Plants

"… comprehensive coverage of each of the 14 essential mineral nutrients required by plants. Its focus is different from other books on plant nutrition, in that there is a strong practical bent towards understanding and managing the efficiency of applied nutrient use. …very useful coverage of each of the mineral nutrients … contains many figures and tables of experimental data involving a wide range of soil and plant measurements. The content is fully referenced, with a list of references at the end of each chapter