Principles and Practice of Soil Science: The Soil as a Natural Resource

This established textbook continues to provide both a current and comprehensive introduction to soil science for students at tertiary institutions as well as a readily accessible reference work for professional soil scientists, agronomists, ecologists, geomorphologists, engineers and land managers. It covers all aspects of soil science--soil habitat, processes in the soil environment, and soil management. The author maintains the clarity and brevity of previous editions and extensively illustrates the text with photographs and diagrams. Examples are drawn from the author's experience in many parts of the world.

In this new edition, the scientific content of the text has been fully revised and updated. Emphasis has been placed on the applications of soil science to the solution of a wide variety of practical problems in soil and land management. Contemporary material has been introduced on productivity, fertilizers and agro-chemicals, problem soils and soil information systems. A completely new chapter on soil quality and sustainable land management has also been added, which reviews current issues in the sustainable use of natural resources at national and international levels.

Global food shortages and rising populations continue to place ever-increasing pressures on agriculture to perform as efficiently as possible. The problem of meeting these needs while limiting the impact of further intensification of production systems on the quality of the environment has never been so acute. This book reveals that the scientific contribution of soil science to environmental land management is a crucial one.