Soil Function (original) (raw)
Related papers
This talk was given as part of a research proposal seminar series for the Cotton Catchment Communities CRC annual updates.
Foreword to ‘Linking Soil Structure and Soil Functions’
Soil Research, 2019
Soils and their protection have been recognised of paramount importance by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) by declaring 2015 as the International Year of Soils (Martín et al. 2017). Soils of natural and managed ecosystems deliver several fundamental ecosystem services which, according to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005), include provisioning services (e.g. production of food, fibre, fuel), regulating services (e.g. contaminant filtering, carbon sequestration, erosion control, flood protection), cultural services (e.g. recreation, tourism) and supporting services (e.g. nutrient cycling processes) (Schwilch et al. 2016).
Geoderma, 2003
When I send out a book as book review editor of Geoderma, I include some suggestions that may be of help to the reviewer. The first suggestion is: ''.. .you should read the whole book, which is the very least you owe the author(s) and/or editor(s).'' After a review copy of the ''Encyclopedia of soil science'' was received, I realised it would be difficult to find a reviewer giving the size of the book: it is fat (73 mm thick), weighs 3.3 kg and has almost 1500 pages. Secondly, there are so many people involved in this encyclopaedia that it would be difficult to find someone who has not contributed. Therefore, as a noncontributor and someone who likes to read a bit, I decided to review the book myself. Given the increasing availability of soil information and data on the world wide web and in hundreds of textbooks, it is good to see that this book starts with the rationale why it was written. The rationale, as the editor points out in the preface, is the important challenges that humankind faces at the start of the 21st century (growing population, food insecurity, soil degradation, increase in greenhouse gasses, decrease in the area of arable land, shortage of fresh water). The development of soil maintenance strategies are essential for the solutions to these challenges, and it is necessary that soil information is readily available to the scientific community, policy makers and the public at large in an easily accessible compendium: hence this book. The encyclopaedia has about 360 entries that were written by over 400 authors. All branches of soil science are covered and an editorial board of 15 soil scientists in addition to 47 topical editors was involved steered by the competent editor Rattan Lal. Each entry covers three to six pages and consists of an introduction whereafter the main part is presented in several short sections including graphs, tables and sometimes pictures. All entries end with a list of references, which are numbered in the text. Each entry reviews in a few pages the most important aspects and developments of a particular subject. For example, the four-page entry Winfiltration propertiesl includes paragraphs on infiltration models, model parameters like porosity, initial water content, wetting front suction, effective hydraulic conductivity, and ends with conclusions and a list of 23 references. It includes two tables. The pages of the book are slightly smaller than A4 and the text is double-columned. There is an excellent 24-page index at the back. It is impossible to list all entries in this review as it is also impossible to have all soil science entries in a single encyclopaedia. Some subjects have multiple entries and there are 12 entries (> 3%) starting with Wdegradationl, 29 entries (9%) start with Werosionl, 7 entries with Winorganic carbonl and 9 start with Worganic matterl. The 12 orders of Soil Taxonomy www.elsevier.com/locate/geoderma Geoderma 115 (2003) 325-333
Hydraulic properties and water balance of a clay soil cropped with cotton
Irrigation Science, 1994
A field study was carried out in the Cukurova Region, Southern Turkey to investigate the magnitude of the components of water balance, and the water uptake by cotton roots in relation to hydraulic properties of a clay soil. A plot cropped with cotton and with bare soil only were equipped with tensiometers, gypsum blocks, and access tubes for neutron probe to monitor soil water potential and water content.