Soil Formation (Paperback, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1998)

Soils form a unique and irreplaceable essential resource for all terrestrial organisms, including man. Soils form not only the very thin outer skin of the earth's crust that is exploited by plant roots for anchorage and supply of water and nutrients. Soils are complex natural bodies formed under the influence of plants, microorganisms and soil animals, water and air from their parent material, i.e. solid rock or unconsolidated sediments. Physically, chemically and mineralogically they usually differ strongly from the parent material, and normally are far more suitable as a rooting medium for plants. In addition to serving as a substrate for plant growth, including crops and pasture, soils play a dominant role in the biogeochemical cycling of water, carbon, nitrogen and other elements, influencing the chemical composition and turnover rates of substances in the atmosphere and the hydrosphere. Soils take decades to millennia to form. We tread on them and do not usually see their interior, so we tend to take them for granted. But improper and abusive agricultural management, careless land- clearing and reclamation, man-induced erosion, salinisation and acidification, desertification, air- and water pollution, and withdrawal of land for housing, industry and transportation now destroy soils more rapidly than they can be formed.

General

Imprint:	Springer
Country of origin:	Netherlands
Release date:	October 2013
First published:	1998
Authors:	Nico Van Breemen • Peter Buurman
Dimensions:	235 x 155 x 20mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	377
Edition:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1998
ISBN-13:	978-9401741408
Categories:	Books > Earth & environment > The environment > General Books > Professional & Technical > Agriculture & farming > Forestry & silviculture: practice & techniques Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > Geology & the lithosphere > Soil science, sedimentology Books > Earth & environment > Earth sciences > Geology & the lithosphere > Geochemistry Promotions
LSN:	9401741409
Barcode:	9789401741408

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