Handbook of Soil Acidity

504pp, illustrated  ISBN 0824708903      £125.00

This handbook offers effective strategies to modify and adjust crop production processes to decrease the toxicity of soil contaminants, balance soil pH, improve root growth and nutrient uptake, and increase agricultural yield. The Handbook of Soil Acidity provides methods to, measure soil acidity, determine the major causes of soil acidification, calculate acidification rates for specific crop sequences, identify high-risk areas for soil acidification, and model acidification phenomena. This is an essential resource for plant, crop, soil, and environmental scientists, plant and crop physiologists, botanists, agronomists, agriculturists, and upper-level undergraduate, graduate, and continuing-education students in these disciplines.

Contents

• Soil acidification - the world story;
• the role of carbon, nitrogen and sulphur cycles in soil acidification;
• role of plant cation/anion uptake ration in soil acidification;
• acid inputs into the soils from acid rain;
• quantifying the acid balance for broad-acre agricultural systems;
• modelling acidification processes in agricultural systems;
• using geographic information systems (GIS) in soil acidification risk assessments;
• micro- and macro-scale heterogeneity of soil acidity;
• measurements of H+ fluxes and concentrations in the rhizosphere;
• toxic elements in acid soils - chemistry and measurement;
• using lime to ameliorate topsoil and subsoil acidity;
• role of organic matter in alleviating soil acidity.