Integrating decades of research conducted by leading scientists in the field, Remote Sensing of Energy Fluxes and Soil Moisture Content provides an overview of state-of-the-art methods and modeling techniques employed for deriving spatio-temporal estimates of energy fluxes and soil surface moisture from remote sensing. It also underscores the range of such techniques available nowadays as well as the operationally distributed networks that provide today in-situ validated relevant observations. The book brings together three types of articles: Comprehensive reviews that examine the developments in concepts, methods, and techniques employed in deriving land surface heat fluxes as well as soil surface moisture on field, regional, and large scales, paying particular emphasis to the techniques exploiting Earth Observation (EO) technology Detailed insights into the principles and operation of the most widely applied approaches for the quantification and analysis of surface fluxes and soil moisture with case studies that directly show the great applicability of remote sensing in this field, or articles discussing specific issues in the retrievals of those parameters from space Focused articles integrating current knowledge and scientific understanding in the remote sensing of energy fluxes and soil moisture, that are highlighting the main issues, challenges, and future prospects of this emerging technology. Designed with different users in mind, the book is organized in four more or less independent units that make specific information easy to find. It presents a discussion on the future trends and prospects, underlying the scientific challenges that need to be addressed adequately in order to derive more accurate estimates of those parameters from space.

Due to the rapid increase in world population and improving living standards, the global agriculture sector is confronting with challenges for the sustainability of agricultural production and of the environment. Intensive high-yield agriculture is typically dependent on addition of fertilizers (synthetic chemicals, animal manure, etc.). However, non-point nutrient losses from agricultural fields due to fertilization could adversely impact the environment. Increased knowledge on plant nutrient chemistry is required for improving utilization efficiency and minimizing loses from both inorganic and organic nutrient sources. For this purpose, the book is composed of 19 chapters that highlight recent research activities in applied nutrient chemistry geared toward sustainable agriculture and environment. Topics of interest include, but are not limited, to speciation, quantification, and interactions of various plant nutrients and relevant contributories in manure, soil, and plants. This book outlooks emerging researchable issues on alternative utilization and environmental monitoring of manure and other agricultural by products that may stimulate new research ideas and direction in the relevant fields.

The third most important cereal crop after wheat and corn, rice is a staple food for more than half of the world's population. This includes regions of high population density and rapid growth, indicating that rice will continue to be a major food crop in the next century. Mineral Nutrition of Rice brings together a wealth of information on the ecophysiology and nutrient requirements of rice. Compiling the latest scientific research, the book explains how to manage essential nutrients to maximize rice yield. The book examines 15 essential or beneficial nutrients used in irrigated, upland, and floating rice across a range of geographic regions. For each mineral, the text details the cycle in the soil-plant system as well as the mineral's functions, deficiency symptoms, uptake in plants, harvest index, and use efficiency. It then outlines management practices, covering application methods and timing, adequate rates, the use of efficient genotypes, and more. The author, an internationally recognized expert in mineral nutrition for crop plants, also proposes recommendations for the judicious use of fertilizers to reduce the cost of crop production and the risk of environmental pollution. Color photographs help readers identify nutrient deficiency symptoms and take the necessary corrective measures. Packed with useful tables and illustrations, this comprehensive reference guides readers who want to know how to increase rice yield, reduce production costs, and avoid environmental pollution from fertilizers. It offers practical information for those working in agricultural research fields, in laboratories, and in classrooms around the world.

"This thought-provoking book demonstrates how processes of landscape transformation, usually illustrated only in simplified or idealized form, play out over time in real, complex landscapes. Trimble illustrates how a simple landscape disturbance, generated in this case by agriculture, can spread an astonishing variety of altered hydrologic and sedimentation processes throughout a drainage basin. The changes have spatial and temporal patterns forced on them by the distinctive topographic structure of drainage basins. "Through painstaking field surveys, comparative photographic records, careful dating, a skillful eye for subtle landscape features, and a geographer's interdisciplinary understanding of landscape processes, the author leads the reader through the arc of an instructive and encouraging story. Farmers-whose unfamiliarity with new environmental conditions led initially to landscape destruction, impoverishment, and instability-eventually adapted their land use and settlement practices and, supported by government institutions, recovered and enriched the same working landscape. "For the natural scientist, Historical Agriculture and Soil Erosion in the Upper Mississippi Valley Hill Country illustrates how an initially simple alteration of land cover can set off a train of unanticipated changes to runoff, erosion, and sedimentation processes that spread through a landscape over decades-impoverishing downstream landscapes and communities. Distinct zones of the landscape respond differently and in sequence. The effects take a surprisingly long time to spread through a landscape because sediment moves short distances during storms and can persist for decades or centuries in relatively stable forms where it resists further movement because of consolidation, plant reinforcement, and low gradients. "For the social scientist, the book raises questions of whether and how people can be alerted early to their potential for environmental disturbance, but also for learning and adopting restorative practices. Trimble's commitment to all aspects of this problem should energize both groups." -Professor Thomas Dunne, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, UC Santa Barbara

Increased throughput of carbon-based fossil energy, the destruction of Earth s forests, and other land use changes have resulted in ever higher levels of waste in the form of greenhouse gases as well as a diminished capacity of the planet to absorb and store those wastes. This means that to avoid catastrophic global warming and maintain the habitability of Earth by protecting essential soil and water resources, we will need to not only reduce emissions, but also increase carbon storage in the land system. Biosequestration and Ecological Diversity: Mitigating and Adapting to Climate Change and Environmental Degradation discusses ways to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and build soil by changing the way people use and manage land.

Principles and Practices for Better Land Management

Examining biosequestration in social, economic, and political context, the book reviews recent scientific evidence on climate change and global ecological degradation and explains how the carbon cycle has been transformed by destructive land use practices, such as deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels. It describes the principles of biosequestration and restorative land management practices and discusses the potential of carbon storage. The author offers specific examples of inexpensive, proven practices that build soil, protect scarce water resources, and enhance ecological diversity. He also identifies conservation policies that provide technical assistance and financial resources for ecological protection and restoration.

How You Can Help Mitigate Climate Change with a Little Piece of Land

Restorative land use and land management practices are critical components of any comprehensive strategy for mitigating and adapting to climate change and global environmental degradation. This book explains how anyone who owns or manages land from an apartment to a city lot to a farm, forest, park, or even a golf course can help protect and enhance the biological sequestration of carbon.

Scientists and consultants need to estimate and map properties of the terrestrial environment. These include plant nutrients and parasites in soil, gaseous emissions from soil, pollutant metals and xenobiotics in waste and contaminated land, salt in groundwater and species abundances above ground. The scale varies from small experimental plots to catchments, and the land may be enclosed in fields or be open grassland, forest or desert. Those who sample the variables to obtain the necessary data need guidance on the design and analysis of sampling methods for their conclusions and recommendations to be valid.

This book provides that guidance, backed by sound rationale and statistical theory. It concentrates on design-based sampling for estimates of mean values of environmental properties, emphasizing replication and randomization. It starts with simple random sampling and then progresses to more efficient designs, such as spatially stratified random sampling, stratification by classes and cluster sampling. It includes a section on purposive sampling in classical soil survey, which is relevant to other environmental properties such as vegetation. It also describes the effects of bulking on errors and the use of ancillary information and regression to improve estimates. The authors draw the important distinction between design-based sampling for estimating means and model-based methods (geostatistics) for local spatial prediction and mapping, and focus on the latter. They describe designs suitable for computing variograms and prediction by kriging, as well as a staged approach, so that sampling is neither inadequate nor excessive, and designs adapt as knowledge is accumulated. Including numerous worked case studies of sampling in agriculture, ecology and environmental science, the book will be of immediate practical value.

In this book Michael Morris presents a detailed study of the prehistoric landscape in three regions of Crete. He examines the development, stability, and physio-chemical composition of selected soils near three archaeological sites: Karphi, a Late Minoan IIIC "Refuge Site"; Chrysokamino, a Final Neolithic to Late Minoan IIIB Farmhouse; Vronda and Kastro near Kavousi, two Late Minoan IIIC to Geometric Sites. Morris offers conclusions on the history of the Cretan landscape and its formation processes, and how those processes contribute to our understanding of the human use of the landscape. The book will interest anyone involved with the archaeology of Minoan Crete, as well as those who study the pedological history of other regions.

This book offers a collection of conference articles presented at the Second International Young Scientists Forum on Soil and Water Conservation and ICCE symposium 2018 "Climate Change Impacts on Sediment Dynamics: Measurement, Modelling, and Management" held at Moscow from 27 to 31 August 2018. This conference was organized by World Association of Soil and Water Conservation (WASWAC) and Lomonosov Moscow State University in cooperation with the International Commission on Continental Erosion of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences and World Large rivers Initiative. Topics in this book cover a wide range of questions related to fluvial geomorphology, water studies, and sediment transport.

An evolving, living organic/inorganic covering, soil is in dynamic equilibrium with the atmosphere above, the biosphere within, and the geology below. It acts as an anchor for roots, a purveyor of water and nutrients, a residence for a vast community of microorganisms and animals, a sanitizer of the environment, and a source of raw materials for construction and manufacturing. To develop lasting solutions to the challenges of balanced use and stewardship of the Earth, we require a fundamental understanding of soil from its elastic, porous three-phase system to its components, processes, and reactions.

Handbook of Soil Sciences: Resource Management and Environmental Impacts, Second Edition is the second of two volumes that form a comprehensive reference on the discipline of soil science. Completely revised and updated to reflect the current state of knowledge, this volume covers interfacial interactions between the physical, chemical, and biological regimes within the soil; the factors that control the availability of plant nutrients and microelements; interdisciplinary aspects of soil science, including salinity, sodicity, and soil erosion; and soil databases for assessing worldwide soil resources.

Critical elements addressed in each section include:

• Descriptions of concepts and theories
• Definitions, approaches, methodologies, and procedures
• Data in tabular and figure format
• Extensive references

This cohesive handbook provides a thorough understanding of soil science principles and practices based on a rigorous, complete, and up-to-date treatment of the subject matter compiled by leading scientists. It is a resource rich in data, offering professional soil scientists, agronomists, engineers, ecologists, biologists, naturalists, and students their first point of entry into a particular aspect of the soil sciences.

Aeroponics: Growing Vertical covers aspects of the emerging technology, aeroponics, which is a sister to hydroponics, involving state-of-the-art controlled environment agriculture. The book begins with an introduction of aeroponics followed by a summary of peer-reviewed technical literature conducted over 50 years involving various aspects of aeroponics. It covers the science and all the patent literature since 2001 to give the reader a comprehensive view of the innovations related to aeroponics. This book is a useful reference for people interested in learning about how aeroponics works. This book is for novices as well as scientists interested in research activities conducted in countries around the world as well as work in using aeroponics in outer space. Designed for the user interested in research conducted in the past, this a helpful resource for those in the next generation of profitable agricultural endeavors. Features: * Comprehensive resource presenting key aspects of aeroponics * Focus on areas of aeroponics including its history, science, innovations, business, and practice * Provides a complete overview of the intellectual property associated with aeroponics * Presents a broad overview of research using aeroponic systems across the globe * Features information on key start-up businesses and activities that drive this technology Thomas Gurley earned a BA in chemistry from Houghton College and a PhD in analytical chemistry from Case Western Reserve University and has 40 years industrial chemistry experience with companies including Goodyear, Abbott Labs, and his consulting company, Manning Wood LLC. He holds two Fulbright scholarships to Ukraine and Uganda. He is currently R&D Director for Aero Development Corporation, a manufacturer of aeroponic commercial growing systems. He conducts research in aeroponics as an adjunct professor at Charleston Southern University in South Carolina.

Feeding the increasing global population, which is projected to reach ~10 billion by 2050, there has been increasing demands for more improved/sustainable agricultural management practices that can be followed by farmers to improve productivity without jeopardizing the environment and ecosystem. Indeed, about 95% of our food directly or indirectly comes from soil. It is a precious resource, and sustainable soil management is a critical socio-economic and environmental issue. Maintaining the environmental sustainability while the world is facing resource degradation, increasing climate change and population explosion is the current challenge of every food production sectors. Thus, there is an urgent need to evolve a holistic approach such as conservation agriculture to sustain higher crop productivity in the country without deteriorating soil health. Conservation Agriculture (CA), is a sustainable approach to manage agro-ecosystems in order to improve productivity, increase farm profitabilty and food security and also enhance the resource base and environment. Worldwide, it has been reported various benefits and prospects in adopting CA technologies in different agro-climatic conditions. Yet, CA in arid and semi-arid regions of India and parts of south Asia raises uncertainities due to its extreme climates, large scale residue burning, soil erosion and other constraints such as low water holding capacity, high potential evapotranspiration, etc . Thus, the proposed book has 30 chapters addressing all issues relevant to conservation agriculture/no-till farming system. The book also gives further strengthening existing knowledge in relation to soil physical, chemical and biological processes and health within close proximity of CA as well as machinery requirements. Moreover, the information on carbon (C) sequestration, C credits, greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, mitigation of climate change effects and socio-economic view on CA under diverse ecologies namely rainfed, irrigated and hill eco-region is also deliberated. For large scale adoption of CA practices in South Asian region especially in India and other countries need dissemination of best-bet CA technologies for dominant soil types/cropping systems through participatory mode, strong linkages and institutional mechanism and public-private-policy support. We hope this book gives a comprehensive and clear picture about conservation agriculture/no-till farming and its associated problem, challenges, prospects and benefits. This book shall be highly useful reference material to researchers, scientists, students, farmers and land managers for efficient and sustainable management of natural resources.

A comprehensive and practical overview of the state of the science, Soil Quality Standards for Trace Elements: Derivation, Implementation, and Interpretation addresses the derivation of soil quality standards for trace elements and the implementation of these standards within regulatory and risk assessment frameworks. Forty experts from 11 countries across Europe, Asia, and North America -- a multidisciplinary group of government policy makers and regulators, academics, industry representatives, and consultants -- provide a focused discussion on the science and methods underpinning the derivation of soil quality standards for trace elements. * Outlines the supporting science for setting environmental and human health standards * Covers the application and practical use of soil quality standards for trace elements * Contains recommendations on the development and use of soil quality standards for trace elements * Identifies best practices in accounting for (bio)availability and exposure modelling in standard setting for soils The book provides a clear description of how to derive and implement soil quality standards for trace elements in order to assess human and environmental risks. It covers scientific developments useful for resolving discrepancies in the setting and implementation of soil quality standards. It provides useful tips, including do's, and don'ts on how to deal with issues such as variation of the natural background and soil type dependent toxicity.

This book envisages a multi-proxy approach using stable isotopes, geochemical proxies, magnetic susceptibility and associated biotic events for paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental interpretations of the Mesozoic sedimentary record of India. Mesozoic rocks of India record abnormal sea level rise, greenhouse climate, intensified volcanism, hypoxia in seawater, extensive black shale deposition, and hydrocarbon occurrence. The Mesozoic has also witnessed mass extinction events, evolution of dinosaurs, and breakdown of the supercontinent Pangea and the formation of Gondwana. Although the Mesozoic geology of India has witnessed significant progress in the last century, literature survey reveals a huge gap in knowledge regarding sequence stratigraphy, chemostratigraphy and key geological events. A synthesis of sedimentological, paleontological and chemical data is included to presenting a comprehensive understanding of the Indian Mesozoic record to students, researchers and professionals.

This volume brings together contributions from world renowned researchers and practitioners in the field of geotechnical engineering. The chapters of this book are based on the keynote and invited lectures delivered at the 7th International Conference on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics. The book presents advances in the field of soil dynamics and geotechnical earthquake engineering. A strong emphasis is placed on proving connections between academic research and field practice, with many examples, case studies, best practices, and discussions on performance-based design. This volume will be of interest to research scholars, academicians and industry professionals alike.

Worldwide demand for sand and gravel is increasing daily, as the need for these materials continues to rise, for example in the construction sector, in land filling and for transportation sector based infrastructural projects. This results in over-extraction of sand from channel beds, and hampers the natural renewal of sediment, geological setup and morphological processes of the riverine system. In India, illegal sand mining (of alluvial channels) and gravel mining (of perennial channels) are two anthropogenic issues that negatively affect the sustainable drainage system. Along the Kangsabati River in India, the consequences of sand mining are very serious. The construction of Mukutmonipur Dam (1958) on the river causes huge sediment deposition along the middle and downstream areas, these same areas are also intensely mined for sand (instream and on the flood plain). Geospatial models are applied in order to better understand the state and the resilience of stream hydraulics, morphological and river ecosystem variables during pre-mining and post-mining stages, using micro-level datasets of the Kangsabati River. The book also includes practicable measures to minimize the environmental consequences of instream mining in respect to optimum sand mining. It discusses the threshold limits of each variable in stream hydraulics, morphological and river ecological regime, and also discusses the most affected variables. Consequently, all outputs will be very useful for students, researchers, academicians, decision makers and practitioners and will facilitate applying these techniques to create models for other river basins.

The Guayana Highlands in northeastern tropical America, rising from lowland rain forests and savannas up to 3000 m elevation, are characterized by ancient tablelands called "tepuis." The peatlands that developed on the tepuis constitute unique and fascinating ecosystems and are the focus of this volume, which starts with an overview of tropical and subtropical peats, followed by an introduction to the geo-ecological features of the Guayana region as a whole, with special emphasis on the diversity of the vegetation cover from lowlands to uplands to highlands. The core subject centers on the properties and dating of the peat deposits and the interpretation of the chronological record in terms of past environmental changes. The well illustrated book will appeal to a broad range of scientists interested in tropical highland peats, including quaternarists, soil scientists, geomorphologists, geographers, geologists, ecologists, botanists, hydrologists, conservationists, and land use planners.

Recognized and advocated as a powerful tool, the role of remote sensing in identifying, mapping, and monitoring soil salinity and salinization will continue to expand. Remote Sensing of Soil Salinization: Impact on Land Management delineates how to combine science and geospatial technologies for smart environmental management. Choose the Right Techniques for the Job An overview of soil salinity assessment using remote sensing technologies, the book describes a variety of sensors, ranging from ground-based to airborne and satellite-borne, and their use in a diversity of geographical regions and environmental settings from coastal to inland saline areas. It provides guidance on how to identify and choose the right remote sensing tools and data sets required based on the purpose of the study and the environmental setting. Organized into three sections, the book covers: Section I: Soil Salinity and Remote Sensing: The Object and the Tool - Focuses on the relationships between the landscape-object salinity and the remote sensing tools Section II: Trends in Mapping Soil Salinity and Monitoring Salinization Using Remote and Proximal Sensing - Provides a variety of case studies dealing with soil salinity mapping and monitoring the process of salinization Section III: Diversity of Approaches to Modeling Soil Salinity and Salinization - Demonstrates the diversity of approaches used in modeling soil salinity and salinization in space and time Combines Fundamentals, the Latest Technology, and Practical Examples The book includes analyses of basic issues of remote detection, such as the spectral behavior of salt types and vegetation influence, and evaluations of currently available remote sensing platforms delineating their advantages and disadvantages. The accompanying CD-ROM provides color images that enhance the mat

Soil quality is threatened by many human-induced activities, but can also be improved by good land management. In the relatively short history of mankind on earth, the landscape and soils of the world have been drastically modified from their "natural " state. Landscapes altered by man's activities are termed "Anthroscapes" which are inextricably linked to culture and history. The challenges for today's scientists are to devise and implement sustainable land management strategies in order to preserve the land for the benefit of future generations. This book is a valuable compendium of the research experiences so far gained in studies of the context and concept of the "Anthroscape" and highlights the potential future contributions of such research to sustainable development.

This book is the first to systematically explore experimental erosion by integrating theory, erosion observations, and conservation applications. Although numerous books have been published on soil erosion both in English and in Chinese, none has concentrated on experimental studies on the Loess Plateau of China, in an attempt to establish a new sub-discipline: experimental erosion. One main objective of this book is to highlight monitoring and modeling methods for soil scientists who design and conduct experimental studies on soil loss. Another objective, and the most important one, is to make the results of these experiments more generally available. Accordingly, we have gathered and integrated a broad range of experimental results, both published and unpublished. In-depth discussions of the experimental data and new data processing methods are also included. The work covered here represents exemplary studies in the field of soil erosion and conservation, while the new methods and findings presented will provide practical guidance for controlling soil erosion. Hence the book offers a valuable resource for graduate students, soil erosion scientists and engineers, and soil and water conservationists.

This book introduces the reader to the unique geology of Greece. This country is a natural geology laboratory that can help us understand the present-day active geodynamic processes in the Hellenic orogenic arc, including earthquakes, volcanoes, coastline changes and other processes of uplift and subsidence, as well as the intense erosion, transport and deposition of sediments. Additionally, Greece offers a remarkable geological museum, reflecting the complex history of the area over the last 300 million years. By studying the rocks of Greece, one can discover old oceanic basins, e.g. in the Northern Pindos and Othrys mountains, crystalline rocks of Palaeozoic age, old granitic and volcanic rocks, as well as other sedimentary rocks including fossils from the shallow neritic facies to pelagic and abyssal facies. The younger sediments demonstrate the continuously changing palaeogeography of Greece, with areas of lakes, high plateaus and gulfs that are transformed into new forms of islands, peninsulas or high mountains, etc. All the above subjects are included in the book, which describes the tectonic structure of the geological strata, together with the evolutionary stages of the palaeogeography and geodynamics within the broader Mediterranean context. A special characteristic of the book is the development of the orogenic model of the Hellenides with the application of the tectono-stratigraphic terrane concept in the Tethyan system.

An exploration of how the many sciences of wine can enhance our appreciation and enjoyment of wine. In From Terrain to Brain, Professor Erika Szymanski makes wine science accessible to non-experts. Rather than approach wine science as body of facts about wine, Szymanski explores how wine science can open up multiple ways of seeing, understanding, and appreciating wine. Too often, wine science is presented as a comprehensive body of knowledge that enthusiasts aiming to become experts should memorize. This book instead uses scientific research to explore wine as an endlessly rich cultural phenomenon. By foregrounding recent research and developments in wine science, From Terrain to Brain presents wine science as a work-in-progress rather than a codified body of knowledge. Each chapter takes readers on a journey or "foray" through a topic in wine science, such as minerality, climate, microbiome, and yeast. Chapters are organized from "terrain" (geography, terroir, soil) and cell "membrane" (microbiology) through "brain" (the experience of tasting) and "drain" (sustainability). Throughout, From Terrain to Brain emphasizes that wine science, wine culture, and tradition are interconnected and places scientific research in social and historical context.

This book provides an overview of the current development status of remediation technologies involving electrochemical processes, which are used to clean up soils that are contaminated with different types of contaminants (organics, inorganics, metalloids and radioactive). Written by internationally recognized experts, it comprises 21 chapters describing the characteristics and theoretical foundations of various electrochemical applications of soil remediation. The book's opening section discusses the fundamental properties and characteristics of the soil, which are essential to understand the processes that can most effectively remove organic and inorganic compounds. This part also focuses on the primary processes that contribute to the application of electrochemically assisted remediation, hydrodynamic aspects and kinetics of contaminants in the soil. It also reviews the techniques that have been developed for the treatment of contaminated soils using electrochemistry, and discusses different strategies used to enhance performance, the type of electrode and electrolyte, and the most important operating conditions. In turn, the book's second part deals with practical applications of technologies related to the separation of pollutants from soil. Special emphasis is given to the characteristics of these technologies regarding transport of the contaminants and soil toxicity after treatment. The third part is dedicated to new technologies, including electrokinetic remediation and hybrid approaches, for the treatment of emerging contaminants by ex-situ and in-situ production of strong oxidant species used for soil remediation. It also discusses pre-pilot scale for soil treatment and the use of solar photovoltaic panels as an energy source for powering electrochemical systems, which can reduce both the investment and maintenance costs of electrochemically assisted processes.