This collection features four peer-reviewed literature reviews on soil health indicators. The first chapter describes indicators and frameworks for soil health currently in use. It evaluates the principles underpinning current approaches to monitoring soil quality/health and shows these principles have been applied in the development of a practical soil health toolkit for use by UK farmers. The second chapter reviews the range of physical, chemical and biological indicators of soil health and how they can be used in practice. It focusses on measuring soil health in organic vegetable cultivation and, in particular, ways of measuring the effects of adding organic amendments to improve soil health. The third chapter discusses key issues in soil organic carbon (SOM) modelling and the development of increasingly sophisticated, dynamic SOM models. It looks at the role of SOM models in improving soil health monitoring and developing decision support tools for farmers The final chapter reviews current challenges in collecting more systematic and reliable data on earthworm communities, including issues in identifying different earthworm groups. It includes a case study on developing a robust method for accurate measurement of earthworm communities in soil in assessing and improving soil health.

Stress Tolerance in Horticultural Crops: Challenges and Mitigation Strategies explores concepts, strategies and recent advancements in the area of abiotic stress tolerance in horticultural crops, highlighting the latest advances in molecular breeding, genome sequencing and functional genomics approaches. Further sections present specific insights on different aspects of abiotic stress tolerance from classical breeding, hybrid breeding, speed breeding, epigenetics, gene/quantitative trait loci (QTL) mapping, transgenics, physiological and biochemical approaches to OMICS approaches, including functional genomics, proteomics and genomics assisted breeding. Due to constantly changing environmental conditions, abiotic stress such as high temperature, salinity and drought are being understood as an imminent threat to horticultural crops, including their detrimental effects on plant growth, development, reproduction, and ultimately, on yield. This book offers a comprehensive resource on new developments that is ideal for anyone working in the field of abiotic stress management in horticultural crops, including researchers, students and educators.

Each co-product feed, often erroneously labelled as processing waste, is described precisely, allowing the reader to distinguish between grains and supergrains, peeled potato and potato peel, steep liquor and spent wash. It describes, for example, how sugar beet fields are audited to ensure good farming practice, how cooking destroys the anti-nutritional factor in raw potatoes, and chopping reduces the risk of choking and how the extraction of sugar and starch leads to higher energy value feeds. Guidance on feeding is provided, with cautionary notes for the farmer and pointers to the factory, where improved practices can enhance feed quality and increase demand.

Metal and Nutrient Transporters in Abiotic Stress focuses on the different forms of environmental stress related to heavy metal, metalloid and nutrient deficiency that have the potential to inflict major damages to crop plants, leading to a massive decrease in crop yield and productivity. The book presents the current state of knowledge of the biochemical and molecular regulation of several classes of membrane transporters related to the uptake of metals/metalloids and nutrient elements during different stresses and their probable mechanisms of operation in plant stress tolerance. Metal and Nutrient Transporters in Abiotic Stress provides a comprehensive discussion that will help in mitigating multiple forms of stresses utilizing transporter proteins. Edited by leading experts and written by a global team of knowledgeable contributors, this book will further stimulate research in the field of transporter proteins and will foster further interests for researchers, academicians and scientists worldwide. It is complimented by its companion book titled Transporters and Plant Osmotic Stress.