Soil Science: Agricultural and Environmental Prospectives

Soil is the most important natural non-renewable resource developed over a longer period of time due to weathering of rocks and subsequently enrichment of organic matter. Soil provides habitat for numerous microorganisms and serves as a natural medium for plant growth, thereby providing the plants with anchorage, nutrients and water to sustain the growth. Soil also serves as a universal sink for all types of pollutants, purifies ground water and is a major reserve of carbon in the universe. The role of soils to provide ecosystem services, maintenance of environmental/human health and ensuring the food security makes it as the most important and basic natural resource. Soil Science helps us to elaborate and understand how the soils provide all these services. Soil Science also provides us the basic knowledge dealing with the origin of the soil parent material, weathering of parent material and the formation of soils, morphological, physico-chemical and biological features of soils, classification of soils and role of soils in the provision and maintenance of ecosystem services, food security and environmental quality. This book encompasses the various processes, functions and behaviour of soils very comprehensively to acquaint the students of soil, plant and environmental sciences about their role to perform different agricultural and environmental functions.

Soil is the most important natural non-renewable resource developed over a longer period of time due to weathering of rocks and subsequently enrichment of organic matter. Soil provides habitat for numerous microorganisms and serves as a natural medium for plant growth, thereby providing the plants with anchorage, nutrients and water to sustain the growth. Soil also serves as a universal sink for all types of pollutants, purifies ground water and is a major reserve of carbon in the universe. The role of soils to provide ecosystem services, maintenance of environmental/human health and ensuring the food security makes it as the most important and basic natural resource. Soil Science helps us to elaborate and understand how the soils provide all these services. Soil Science also provides us the basic knowledge dealing with the origin of the soil parent material, weathering of parent material and the formation of soils, morphological, physico-chemical and biological features of soils, classification of soils and role of soils in the provision and maintenance of ecosystem services, food security and environmental quality. This book encompasses the various processes, functions and behaviour of soils very comprehensively to acquaint the students of soil, plant and environmental sciences about their role to perform different agricultural and environmental functions.

Preface.- Foreword.- Dedication.- Chapter 1: An Appraisal of Conservation Tillage on the Soil Physical Properties.- Chapter 2: Degraded soils: Origin, types and management.- Chapter 3: Nitrogen Management in Rice-Wheat Cropping System in Salt-Affected Soils.- Chapter 4: Management of Acid Sulfate Soils for sustainable rice cultivation in Malaysia.- Chapter 5: Petroleum hydrocarbons-contaminated soils:  Remediation approaches.- Chapter 6: Environmental Impacts of Nitrogen Use in Agriculture, Nitrate Leaching and Mitigation Strategies.- Chapter 7: Potassium for Sustainable Agriculture.- Chapter 8: Weathering and Approaches to Evaluation of Weathering Indices for Soil Profile Studies - An Overview.- Chapter 9: Pesticides Pollution in Agricultural Soils of Pakistan.- Chapter 10: Iron Biofortification of Cereals Grown under Calcareous Soils: Problems and Solutions.- Chapter 11: Boron Toxicity in Salt-Affected Soils and Effects on Plants.- Chapter 12: Silicon: a beneficial nutrient under salt stress, its uptake mechanism and mode of action.- Chapter 13: Soil Micro Flora- An Extensive Research.- Chapter 14: Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Boon for Plant Nutrition and Soil Health.- Chapter 15: Azotobacter chroococcum - Potential Biofertilizer in Agriculture: An Overview.- Chapter 16: Sources and Composition of Waste Water: Threats to Plants and Soil Health.- Chapter 17: Soil Amendments for Heavy Metal Immobilization Using Different Crops.- Chapter 18: Climate Change: Impacts on Carbon Sequestration, Biodiversity and Agriculture.