Essentials of soil science : soil formation, functions, use and classification (World Reference Base, WRB) / Winfried Blum, Peter Schad and Stephen Nortcliff.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blum, Winfried E. H., author.

Nortcliff, Stephen, author.

Schad, Peter, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Soil science.

Soils--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Soils.

Soil science--Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (173 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stuttgart, Germany : Borntraeger Science Publishers, [2018]

Summary:

This book is a concise, yet comprehensive modern introduction to soil science and describes the development of soils, their characteristics and their material composition as well as their functions in terrestrial and aquatic environments. Soil functions include the delivery of goods and services for the human society, such as food, clean water, and the maintenance of biodiversity. The book is profusely illustrated with many coloured figures and tables to accompany the text and ease its understanding. Particularly the chapter on soil classification, based on the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB), features numerous colour pictures of typical soil profiles to facilitate understanding the characteristics of particular soil types. Chapters on soil protection and remediation and soil monitoring and the history of soil sciences conclude the book together with a very comprehensive alphabetical index, allowing for a quick and easy orientation about the most important terms in soil sciences. The book addresses all those, who want to orient themselves about soils, their functions, their importance in terrestrial and aquatic environments and their contribution to the actual and future development of the human society, such as teachers, practitioners and students in the fields of agriculture, forestry, gardening, terrestrial and aquatic ecology and environmental engineering, and of course, beginning students of soil science. For classroom use, we offer classroom sets of 10 copies and 20 copies which you may order through your bookstore or directly online by following the respective link.

Contents:

Cover

Title

Copyright

Table of Contents

Foreword

About the authors

1 Introduction

1.1. Definition of soil

1.2. Soil functions

1.3. Soil science

2 Soil components

2.1. Mineral components

2.1.1 Parent materials

2.1.1.1 Rocks and technogenic materials

2.1.1.2 Minerals

2.1.2 Transformation processes of rocks and minerals

2.1.2.1 Weathering processes

2.1.2.1.1 Physical weathering processes

2.1.2.1.2 Chemical and biological weathering processes

2.1.2.2 Formation of new minerals (neoformation)

2.1.2.2.1 Formation of clay minerals from micas

2.1.2.2.2 Formation of clay minerals from end products of silicate weathering

2.1.2.2.3 Formation of oxides and hydroxides

2.1.3 The products of silicate weathering

2.1.3.1 Clay minerals

2.1.3.1.1 1:1 clay minerals

2.1.3.1.2 2:1 clay minerals

2.1.3.1.3 2:1:1 clay minerals

2.1.3.1.4 Allophanes

2.1.3.2 Oxides and hydroxides

2.1.3.3 Water-soluble components

2.1.4 The mineral fractions of soils

2.2. Organisms

2.2.1 Soil flora

2.2.2 Soil fauna

2.3. Organic components

2.3.1 Sources of soil organic matter

2.3.2 Transformation processes of soil organic matter

2.3.2.1 Mineralization of soil organic matter

2.3.2.2 Formation of stable soil organic matter

2.3.3 Humic substances

2.3.4 Humus forms

2.3.5 Organic matter content of soils

2.3.6 Soil organic matter and the global C budget

2.4. Soil water

2.4.1 Water-holding capacity of soils

2.4.1.1 Binding energy

2.4.1.2 Water capacity

2.4.1.3 Water tension

2.4.2 Water movement in soils

2.4.2.1 Flow of liquid water

2.4.2.2 Movement of water vapour within soils

2.5. Soil air

2.5.1 Composition of soil air

2.5.2 Gas exchange between soil and atmosphere

3 Soil characteristics

3.1. Physical properties of soils.

3.1.1 Particle size and texture

3.1.2 Soil structure

3.1.2.1 Soil pore volume

3.1.2.2 Types of soil structure

3.1.2.3 The development of soil aggregate structure

3.1.2.3.1 Coagulation and peptization

3.1.2.3.2 Shrinking and swelling of soils

3.1.2.3.3 Frost action

3.1.2.3.4 The activity of soil organisms

3.1.3 Particle density and bulk density

3.1.4 Soil consistence

3.1.5 Soil temperature

3.1.6 Soil colour

3.2. Physico-chemical properties of soils

3.2.1 Ion exchange in soils

3.2.1.1 Cation exchange

3.2.1.1.1 The causes of cation exchange

3.2.1.1.2 Cation exchange processes

3.2.1.1.3 The properties of the ions

3.2.1.1.4 The properties of the ion exchanger

3.2.1.1.5 Ionic composition and ion concentration of the solution

3.2.1.1.6 Combined effects of the various factors

3.2.1.1.7 Theory of cation exchange in soils

3.2.1.2 Anion exchange

3.2.2 Soil pH (Soil reaction)

3.2.2.1 How the soil pH is established

3.2.2.2 The causes and consequences of soil acidity

3.2.2.2.1 Processes poducting H+ ions in soils

3.2.2.2.2 Loss of base cations from the soil

3.2.2.2.3 pH variation in soils with depth

3.2.2.3 Soil pH buffering

3.2.2.4 Why soil pH is important

3.2.3 Redox dynamics in soils

3.3. Biological properties of soils

4 Soil formation (Pedogenesis)

4.1. Factors of soil formation

4.1.1 Parent material (parent rock) of soils

4.1.1.1 Chemical and mineral composition of parent material

4.1.1.2 Structure and particle size of parent material

4.1.2 Climate

4.1.2.1 Temperature effect on soil formation

4.1.2.2 Water (as agent of soil formation)

4.1.2.3 Overall characterization of the climate

4.1.3 Relief and gravity

4.1.4 Biota (vegetation, animals, microorganisms)

4.1.5 The human impact on soils.

4.1.6 Interaction of the soil-forming factors over time

4.2. Processes of soil formation

4.2.1 Transformation processes

4.2.2 Translocation processes

4.2.2.1 Salt, gypsum and carbonate transport

4.2.2.2 Clay migration

4.2.2.3 Transport of organic substances

4.2.2.4 Si, Al, Fe and Mn transport

4.2.2.5 Turbation (mixing processes)

4.2.2.6 Surface transport of soil material

4.3. The soil profile

4.3.1 Soil properties

4.3.2 Soil horizons

4.3.3 Horizon combinations and soil groups

4.4. Soil sequences

5 Soil Classification

5.1. Soil classification systems

5.1.1 Factor systems

5.1.2 Property-based systems

5.1.3 Combined systems

5.1.4 The International Soil Classification System WRB

5.2. The major soils of the world

5.2.1 Soils with initial to intermediate soil formation

5.2.2 Soils with reducing conditions

5.2.3 Soils with relatively higher clay contents in the subsoil

5.2.4 Soils with thick dark mineral topsoil horizons

5.2.5 Soils of arid and semi-arid regions

5.2.6 Strongly weathered tropical soils

5.2.7 Soils typical for polar and boreal zones

5.2.8 Soils with specific physical properties

5.2.9 Anthropogenic soils

5.3. Regional distribution of soils

5.3.1 How soils are associated with each other

5.3.2 Soil maps

6 Soils in the environment

6.1. Humans and the environment

6.2. Six major soil functions

6.2.1 Ecological functions of soils

6.2.1.1 Agricultural and forest production function

6.2.1.2 Filtering, buffering and transformer functions

6.2.1.3 Gene protection and gene reserve function

6.2.2 Technical-industrial, socio-economic and cultural functions of soils

6.2.2.1 Infrastructure function

6.2.2.2 Raw material supply function

6.2.2.3 Cultural function.

6.3. Competing soil functions as a key to understanding soil conservation

6.4. Threats to soil functions - soil loss and soil pollution

6.4.1 Soil development and history of land use

6.4.2 Soil loss caused by infrastructural measures

6.4.3 Soil pollution

6.4.3.1 Air pollutants

6.4.3.1.1 Soil acidification

6.4.3.1.2 Soil pollution by toxic substances

6.4.3.1.3 Soil pollution by radionuclides

6.4.3.2 Pollution of surface waters and groundwater

6.4.3.3 Impacts from agriculture, forestry and waste management

6.4.3.3.1 Physical soil deterioration

6.4.3.3.2 Chemical and biological pollution

6.4.4 Summary: soil loss, soil pollution

6.5. Soil protection

6.5.1 Evaluation of soil loss and soil pollution

6.5.2 Principles of soil protection

6.5.3 Operational measures for soil protection

6.5.4 European soil protection strategy

7 Soil as a plant-growing medium

7.1. Soil fertility

7.2. The root zone

7.3. Water, air and heat supply

7.4. Nutrient supply

7.4.1 Nutrients

7.4.2 Binding forms of the nutrients

7.4.3 Nutrient availability

7.4.4 Identification of the status of supply

7.5. Soil group and soil fertility, soil evaluation

8 Soil information systems

8.1. Soil inventory and soil mapping

8.2. Soil monitoring

8.3. Soil information systems in the network of environmental monitoring

9 History of soil science

References

Subject index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

3-443-01129-2