Contaminants and Clean Technologies provides valuable information on environmental contaminants such as industrial pollutants, micropollutants, pesticides, endocrine disruptors, pharmaceuticals, toxins, and hormones. It focuses on the various types of environmental contaminants discharged from various sources; their toxicological effects in environments, humans, animals, and plants; and their removal methods. It also covers, comprehensively, information on the contaminants released by various industries and agricultural practices, which cause severe threats to the environment. Features of the book: Elucidates systematic information on various types of environmental contaminants, and their fate and consequences Discusses contaminants such as endocrine disruptors, pharmaceutical waste, and personal care products Provides an overview of physicochemical and biological treatment technologies for sustainable development Details recent research finding in the area of environmental contaminants and their future challenges

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 book is a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated colour guide to the plants which farmers, growers and gardeners can use to improve soil structure and restore fertility without the use and expense of agrichemicals. Information based on the latest research is given on how to use soil conditioning plants to avoid soil degradation, restore soil quality and help clean polluted land. There are 11 chapters: 1 to 6 cover soil health, nitrogen fixation, green manures and herbal leys, bacteria and other microorganisms, phytoremediators and soil mycorrhiza (plant-fungal symbiosis). Chapter 7 has plant illustrations, with climate range and soil types, along with their soil conditioning properties and each plant is presented with a comprehensive description opposite a detailed illustration, in full colour. Chapters 8 to 10 examine soil stabilisers, weeds and invasive plants, and hedges and trees and the final chapter, contains 5 case studies with the most recent data, followed by an appendix and glossary. The book allows the reader to identify the plants they need quickly and find the information necessary to begin implementation of soil regeneration.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

Understanding the basic principles of organic agriculture is as much important as that of knowing the latest developments scenario in the field of agriculture. It is strenuous strive to keep pace with the progress of such a vast area like organic farming which is in practice throughout the globe. The budding farmer / scientist have to brace him with the fundamentals of organic agriculture. This book provides attention of one and all concerned to promote organic farming as a measure to provide the elutes to posterity and to save our farm land that we inherited from our forefathers from being degraded and made in to wastelands through our excessive interventions. Opportunity for employment generation in rural India and making the rural roles empowered to produce their farm inputs and a message to live healthy by eating organic food. In addition this publication guides the farmer interested in organic farming.

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 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.

This volume presents select papers presented at the 7th International Conference on Recent Advances in Geotechnical Earthquake Engineering and Soil Dynamics. The papers discuss advances in the fields of soil dynamics and geotechnical earthquake engineering. A strong emphasis is placed on connecting 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 researchers and practicing engineers alike.

Agricultural, horticultural, forestry and fodder production etc. for the burgeoning population are ever increasing enterprises that impose heavy tasks on the management of natural resources. Short term profitability at the cost of sustainability disharmonises the natural forces and processes resulting in peril of the inhabitants of the earth. To this end an understanding with conviction of the principles of soil, plant and water analysis as applied to horticulture will enhance the realization of management goals in harmony with nature. Intended primarily to be a text book, it will help educate learners to follow those principles. Students, planners, faculties and anyone interested in achieving those goals will find it necessarily useful.

This book consists of two parts -soil fertility and nutrient management as applied to agriculture and horticulture. The first part consists of the plant nutrients- principles of their role in nutrition of horticultural crops and behavior in soil with reference to their availability. Problems of soil solution-reaction and salt content- are discussed. All the soil properties excluding two products of weathering-soil texture and depth- are subject to manipulation. These can be scientifically managed for profitable crop production avoiding pollution. The second part elucidates their management with the principles developed in the previous part profitably to sustain agricultural and horticultural production without harming the environment. The principles spread over 20 chapters are clearly elucidated in lucid manner with pictures, figures and tables for easy and comprehensive understanding. Further readings are suggested at the end of the book.

This book will provide an exposure to recent developments in the field of geostatistical modeling, spatial variability of soil resources, and preparation of digital soil maps using R and QGIS and potential application of it in agricultural resource management. Specifically following major areas are covered in the book.

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.