Soils : basic concepts and future challenges / [edited by] Giacomo Certini, Riccardo Scalenghe.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Certini, Giacomo.

Scalenghe, Riccardo.

Ugolini, Fiorenzo C.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Soil science.

Genre:

Festschriften.

Physical Description:

xvii, 310 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Summary:

This book was born as an international tribute to Florenzo C. Ugolini, an outstanding soil scientist, who recently retired from university teaching and research. It is a fully up-to-date synthesis of the present knowledge of soils, their genesis, functions and management. It includes contributions from leading soil scientists and the result is a book that provides the basic concepts as well as the latest data and practical examples from across the discipline, including many issues that are overlooked in other treatments. The book also discusses the increasingly important role of soils in enabling the preservation of life. Soils: Basic Concepts and Future Challenges provides the necessary keys to name soils and soil horizons. It contains a rare attempt to cross-harmonize the soil groups of the World Reference Base of Soil Resources with the orders of the Soil Taxonomy, and presents a novel analysis of the various soil-forming factors. The book also quantities the global extent of human-impacted soils, and the possible existence of extraterrestrial soils based on the findings from the last space missions.

This volume will be a valuable resource for researchers and students of soil science, soil conservation, geography and landscape ecology. The editors of this book, Giacomo Certini and Riccardo Scalenghe, are researchers respectively at the Universities of Firenze and Palermo. As authors of numerous papers in international journals dealing with soil science and ecology, they have carried out studies in various European countries including Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and the UK. They teach on topics related to soil, water and the environment.

Contents:

1 Concepts of soils / Richard W. Arnold 1

1.1 Some Greek and Roman concepts 2

1.2 The transition 4

1.3 The awakening 4

1.4 Genetic supremacy 5

1.5 Sampling volumes 7

1.6 Landscape systems 9

1.7 The new millennium 9

2 Pedogenic processes and pathways of horizon differentiation / Stanley W. Buol 11

2.1 Horizonation processes 11

2.2 Studies of soil genesis 12

2.3 Surface horizons 14

2.4 Subsurface horizons 15

2.5 Formation of structural features in soil 21

3 Soil phases: the inorganic solid phase / G. Jock Churchman 23

3.1 Description 23

3.2 Future prospects 44

4 Soil phases: the organic solid phase / Claire Chenu 45

4.1 Soil organic matter complex composition 46

4.2 Organomineral associations 51

4.3 Soil organic matter dynamics 54

5 Soil phases: the liquid phase / Randy A. Dahlgren 57

5.1 The liquid phase of soils 59

5.2 Methods of soil solution characterization 63

5.3 Application of soil solution studies to pedogenesis 66

6 Soil phases: the gaseous phase / Andrey V. Smagin 75

6.1 Gaseous components of soil 75

6.2 Sources, sinks and transport of gases in the soil 77

6.3 Agroecological evaluation of the soil air 84

6.4 Gases emissions and global ecological functions of the soil 85

7 Soil phases: the living phase / Oliver Dilly, Eva-Maria Pfeiffer, Ulrich Irmler 91

7.1 Physiological capabilities of soil organisms 92

7.2 The role of organisms for soil functions 95

7.3 Aerobic and anaerobic metabolisms in soil 96

7.4 The living phase indicates soil quality 98

7.5 Modification of biotic communities during soil degradation 100

8 The State Factor theory of soil formation / Ronald Amundson 103

8.1 The soil system 105

8.2 State factors 108

8.3 Importance of State Factor theory 111

9 Factors of soil formation: parent material. As exemplified by a comparison of granitic and basaltic soils / Michael J. Wilson 113

9.1 Mineralogical properties 114

9.2 Physical properties 116

9.3 Chemical properties 119

10 Factors of soil formation: climate. As exemplified by volcanic ash soils / Sadao Shoji, Masami Nanzyo, Tadashi Takahashi 131

10.1 Global climate and soil formation 132

10.2 Influences of climatic factors on soil formation based on the studies on volcanic ash soils 137

11 Factors of soil formation: topography / Robert C. Graham 151

11.1 Topographic elements of landscapes 151

11.2 External factors mediated by topography 155

11.3 Pedogenic processes linked to topography 156

11.4 Topography-based models of soil distribution 162

12 Factors of soil formation: biota. As exemplified by case studies on the direct imprint of trees on trace metal concentrations in soils / Francois Courchesne 165

12.1 Approach 168

12.2 Case study 1: Trace metal distribution at the soil-root interface 169

12.3 Case study 2: Trace metal patterns in organic horizons 175

13 Factors of soil formation: time / Ewart A. FitzPatrick 181

13.1 Time for horizon differentiation 182

13.2 Soil development 183

13.3 Holocene soil formation 185

13.4 Soil age and progressive change 185

13.5 Time and soil classification 190

14 Soil formation on Earth and beyond: the role of additional soil-forming factors / Giacomo Certini, Riccardo Scalenghe 193

14.1 The anthropogenic factor 194

14.2 Other factors of pedogenesis 205

14.3 Extraterrestrial soils 208

15 Soil functions and land use / Johan Bouma 211

15.1 How to deal with future demands on our soils 212

15.2 To characterize soil functions better 215

15.3 Storylines: what can the soil tell us when we listen? 219

16 Physical degradation of soils / Michael J. Singer 223

16.1 Soil compaction 224

16.2 Sealing and crusting 227

16.3 Physical soil management 229

16.4 Secondary effects 231

17 Chemical degradation of soils / Peter Blaser 235

17.1 Chemical soil degradation processes 236

17.2 Our duty 253

18 The future of soil research / Anthony C. Edwards 255

18.1 Soils and their buffering capacities 257

18.2 The soil resource 258

18.3 Soil phosphorus 258

18.4 Soil processes 260

18.5 Nitrogen cycling 261

18.6 The continued investigation of soil processes 263

Appendix Naming soils and soil horizons / Stanley W. Buol, Giacomo Certini, Riccardo Scalenghe 265.

Notes:

Festschrift for Fiorenzo C. Ugolini.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-302) and index.

ISBN:

0521851734

9780521851732

OCLC:

70764847