Bulletin of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) | May 2012

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International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS)The IUSS Bulletin is the official Newsletter of the International Union of Soil Sciences. It is freely distributed through the IUSS website. All contributions are welcome and should be send to the editor.

Editor Alfred HarteminkUniversity of Wisconsin - MadisonDepartment of Soil ScienceF.D. Hole Soils Lab1525 Observatory DriveMadison, WI 53706-1299USA

Secretary General Alfred Hartemink hartemink@wisc.eduDeputy SG Alex McBratney Alex.McBratney@sydney.edu.auPresident Jae Yang yangjay@kangwon.ac.krVice President Kye-Hoon John Kim johnkim@uos.ac.krTreasurer Jim Gauld j.gauld@macaulay.ac.uk

Division 1 Karl Stahr kstahr@uni-hohenheim.deDivision 2 Martin Gerzabek martin.gerzabek@boku.ac.atDivision 3 Rainer Horn rhorn@soils.uni-kiel.deDivision 4 Charles Rice cwrice@ksu.edu

Budgets Stephen Nortcliff s.nortcliff@reading.ac.ukAwards Mary-Beth Kirkham mbk@ksu.eduStatutes Don Sparks dlsparks@udel.eduPresidential elections Roger Swift deannravs@uqg.uq.edu.au

ISSN 0374-0447

Copyright IUSS, Madison, USA

Graphic Design: Daniël Loos, www.bureaucontrapunt.nl

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Contents

Articles“AHA” Moments

By Dick Arnold. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Christian G. Ehrenberg and the Birth of Soil Microbiology in the Middle of the 19th Century

By Hans-Peter Blume and Manfred Boelter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

IUSS Alerts December 2011-May 2012 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Five questions to a soil scientistDaniela Sauer (Germany) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Suk Young Hong (Republic of Korea) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

IUSS ReportsSchools monitoring soils

By Lynn Abbott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14GlobalSoilMap.net – Data Model Task Group Report April 2012-05-10

By Peter Wilson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

100 Year Jubilee Maria Glazovskaya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Igor Krupenikov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

IUSS Humanitarian Soil Scientist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

In MemoriamJohn Mortvedt (USA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Reports of meetings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

New publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

IUSS Honorary members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

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By Dick Arnold

After I retired I selected about 140 slides andwrote about each one; from stepped landscapes toPodzol profiles, from protea blossoms to the TajMahal. They were vivid reminders of places,events, concepts, and emotions. I loved it! Oneday while revisiting these memories I realized thatmany of them were truly, “Aha moments” for me(that is, conscious awareness), and I selected a fewthat meant a lot to me. Let me share several withyou. The first one reinforces the concept that ifyou don’t understand a landscape’s evolution youwill not get pedogenesis right and that 3-D mentalmodels likely are better than profiles. The otherone is a diagram of overlapping properties amongmembers of a population to remind us that the un-certainty of mutually exclusive classes will createconflict if not adequately dealt with.

So why write about these moments? I considerthem vital to who I am as a pedologist; they are theexcitement that comes with renewed awareness;they are real turn-ons; and there is a desire toshare them. Do we have original thoughts? I moreor less doubt it, but we do connect facts and infor-mation together in ways that are unique to our-selves and they form the foundations of theknowledge that guide and support our decisionsand future experiences.

The soil profile is an example of the Webster se-ries in central Iowa. The underlying light brownsubstratum is oxidized and leached (non-calcare-ous) late Wisconsinian glacial till (+/- 14,000 yrsBP). Above it is a tan colored de-oxidized leachedlayer of the till. A weakly expressed pebble bandoccurs in the lower part of the humus enrichedmaterials above marking an erosional surface in adepression in the ground moraine landscape. Thedarker surface layers are pedisediments infilling asmall drainage way and reflecting poorly drainedconditions. The dark spots in the lower profile arekrotovinas (animal burrows filled with surface soil

materials) formed after the site was drained and asuitable habitat existed. Today the site is used foragricultural production. If one speculated pedoge-nesis of an in-situ calcareous till as a monogeneticset of changes, the vitality and dynamics of thelandscape and its soil cover would be misrepre-

“AHA” Moments

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sented. Aha, the story of the periodicity of eventsand processes of a soil’s evolution, that is, polype-dogenesis, has many ramifications.

The simple diagram of overlapping curves, a littlelike Venn diagrams, indicates the limited range ofproperties and/or conditions that we associatewith a modal concept, or representative memberof a class of objects or features. Eventually we re-alize that everything we think, recognize, or meas-ure contains degrees of uncertainty. The soonerwe have this “aha moment” the better. We wantcontinua to consist of discrete classes at least fromour perspective, but they don’t; that would be ar-tificial. Our minds readily create classes of mostthings we experience through our senses startingwith prototypes and minimizing the uncertainty ofoverlapping classes. Aha, uncertainty rules and ifyou do not adequately address the issue, your de-cision making processes may become major stum-bling blocks.

With these two “aha moments” I hope to entice youto share some of yours with us from time to time.

Thanks you, Dick Arnold

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By Hans-Peter Blume and Manfred Boelter, 24098Kiel University, Wolf-Henning Kusber, Freie Univer-sität Berlin, Germany

This is a shortened version of a paper, which ap-peared together with Wolf-Henning Kusber in Jour-nal of Plant Nutrition & Soil Science (2012), Vol. 175,pp. 53-59

Early in the 19th century, the German doctor andnatural scientist Christian G. Ehrenberg (1795-1878), colleague of Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859), determined and classified by microscopicinvestigations species and contents of microorgan-isms (bacteria, algae, diatoms, protozoa) of morethan 1,000 soil samples from all over the world(soils under natural vegetation including coasts,swamps, forests, steppes and mountains, as well assoils from hot and cold deserts, of all continents, in-cluding the Maritime Antarctic). Organisms, miner-als and organic aggregates were fixed in Canadabalsam on object plates. These “mica” were used forlater comparisons with soils of other sites. His es-tate with 40,000 microscope preparations is now lo-cated in the Museum of Nature History at theHumboldt University in Berlin. These microscopepreparations are re-examined actually with im-proved modern techniques.

Ehrenberg identified various organisms, recogniza-ble minerals, litter residues with tissue structures,amorphous-looking humus, and clay particles. Phy-toliths andminerals were identified by a polarizationmicroscope and described the morphology of or-ganic particles. Heoften investigated soil aggregatesaccumulated on roots. Different horizons of soils,e.g., of Russian Chernozems, were analyzed and re-cent phytoliths in all humic soil horizons were de-scribed, which clearly shows the influence of strongbioturbation by earthworms and other soil dwellinganimals (Ehrenberg 1850).

The publications about infusorians, i.e., proto-zoans, algae and bacteria (Ehrenberg1837, 1838,1838a: Fig. 1, 1854, 1854a, 1856), dedicate Ehren-berg to a founder of soil microbiology. The descrip-tions of the facts about living and fossilmicroorganisms were performed up to his owntime, from the suppositions in the ancient worldand the first microscopic proofs by Antoni vanLeeuwenhoek (1632-1723). The results of thesestudies found many quotations and descriptions ofmany microorganisms collected from soils are welldocumented in detail with respect to a worldwideresearch on the occurrence of microorganisms anddocumented their habitat conditions.

Beside bioturbation Ehrenberg identified severalsoil forming processes. Fermentation and decompo-sition of dead organic substances is related to cer-tain infusorians (Ehrenberg, 1838) as well asmineralweathering and new formation of minerals underthe influence of microorganisms long before otherinvestigators recognized these processes in suchway.

Ehrenbergobserved and described first the microor-ganism Gallionella ferruginea in peat soils, in springwater as well as on bog iron. According to this de-scription, G. ferruginea contains either a fleshy pinkor ochre fluffy substance (Fig. 1), which he consid-ered to be a compound of silicic acid and iron oxide.The ochre substance could be goethite, the fleshypink substance could be ferrihydrite. Thus, microor-ganisms are regarded as the source for occurrenceferrihydrite of bog iron, which we today consider tobe a (sub)recent Fe-enrichment in petro-gleyicGleysols. In wide areas of northern Germany of flu-vial glacial sands Fe2+- ions are extensively washedout from Histosols und Spodic Gleysols and laterallytransported by ground water. Fe2+ is probably oxi-dized by microorganisms in a narrow influence areaof O2-rich groundwater of brooks or rivers, although

Christian G. Ehrenberg and theBirth of Soil Microbiology in theMiddle of the 19th Century

7MAY 2012

there is no proof available for an ATP-gaining processin microbes by Fe2+-oxidation in G. ferruginea,Sphaerotilus natans, Leptothrix spp., Crenothrix spp.The Fe(III)-production is probably the result of a min-eralization of Fe(III)-Chelates (Fe-precipitation)(Ottow2011: p. 367ff, and pers. comm.).

Ehrenberg also investigated coral reefs in the RedSea and their formation caused by protozoans(Ehrenberg 1834). Calcareous protozoans also live inreduced intensity in the temperate zone, their oc-currence increases partly on the periodically dryingof wadden soils. In the marine shelf environments,seasonally occurring silicate containing diatomsdominate sediment formations. Ehrenberg (1856)described such observations also for the delta-areaof the Mississippi (p. 19-20).

These processes generally mean soil formation byhelp of microorganisms. Although this was criticizedduring his time, it is still fully accepted today. There-fore, Ehrenberg can be regarded as the main founderof soil microbiology and as pioneer in soil micro-morphology.

ReferencesEhrenberg, C.G. (1834): Beiträge zur physiologischen Ken-

ntniss der Corallenthiere im allgemeinen, und beson-

ders des roten Meeres, nebst einem Versuche zur

physiologischen Systematik derselben. Abhandl. Königl.

Akad. der Wissenschaft. zu Berlin 1832: 225-380

Ehrenberg, C.G. (1837): Die fossilen Infusorien und die

lebende Dammerde. Bruschke, Berlin

Ehrenberg, C.G.(1838): Die Infusionsthierchen als vol-

lkommene Organismen (The infusorians as complete or-

ganisms). Ein Blick in das tiefere organische Leben der

Natur. L. Voss, Leipzig

Ehrenberg,C.G. (1838a): Atlas von vier und sechzig

Kupfertafeln zu Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg über In-

fusionsthierchen. L. Voss, Leipzig

Ehrenberg, C.G. (1850): Vorläufige Bemerkungen über die

mikroskopischen Bestandtheile der Schwarzerde, Tsch-

erno-Sem, in Russland (Provisory remarks about the mi-

croscopic components of the Chernozem in Russia).

Verhandl. Königl. Preuß. Akad. Wissenschaft. Berlin

1850: 268-272, 364-370

Ehrenberg, C.G. (1854): Mikrogeologie (Microgeology). Das

Erden und Felsen schaffende Wirken des unsichtbar

kleinen selbstständigen Lebens auf der Erde. L. Voss,

Leipzig

Ehrenberg, C.G.(1854a): 41 Tafeln zur Mikrogeologie. L.

Voss, Leipzig

Ehrenberg, C.G. (1856): Mikrogeologie. Teil 2. L. Voss,

Leipzig

Ottow, J. (2011): Mikrobiologie von Böden – Biodiversität,

Ökophysiologie und Metagenomik. Springer, Heidelberg

Fig. 1: Gallionella ferruginea Ehrenberg (aerobic oxidizer of iron)

left: Ehrenberg’s preparation (Photo: W.-H. Kusber, scale bar = 10 µm),

center: copper plate engravings in Ehrenberg (1838), Plate 10, Fig. VII,

right: drawing (CC BY 3.0 Brudersohn)

8 IUSS BULLETIN 120

Spanish Journal of Soil Science The Spanish Journal of Soil Science is an interna-tional, peer-reviewed journal, lauched by the Span-ish Society of Soil Science and the Consejo Superiorde Investigaciones Científicas. It is published quar-terly by Universia, mainly in English, but Spanish andPortuguese manuscripts are also accepted. It is anopen-access journal published under a CreativeCommons license and free of charge for authors. Thejournal publishes original research papers of highscientific quality on all fields of soil science and re-lated areas. The first issue of SJSS can already be ac-cessed at: http://sjss.universia.net. Editor-In-Chief:Prof. Rosa M Poch.

Soil Science Teaching PrinciplesFrom a recent article in Geoderma: The teaching ofSoil Science requires principles that reflect the natureof soil and the practices of soil scientists. Because nodiscipline-specific teaching principles could be foundfor Soil Science in the literature, an iterative approachwas used to develop them, which involved input fromstudents, academics, employers, graduates in theworkplace, as well as published generic teaching prin-ciples. The synthesis of these perspectives wasachieved via a series of cycles that first involved stu-dent feedback on Soil Science teaching from five Aus-tralian universities, combined with academicreflections on learning and teaching. The outcome ofthis activity was subject to perspectives provided byemployers of soil scientists and practising soil scien-tists in the workplace. Quantitative and qualitativeanalyses of these sources and published generic teach-ing materials were blended into a set of 11 teachingprinciples of Soil Science that reflect the unique na-ture of soil and the outcomes required of graduateswho have majored in Soil Science. Further info contactDamien Field at damien.field@sydney.edu.au

Conferences, Symposia, MeetingsSoils in Space and Time.30 September – 4 October 2013, Ulm Danube, Ger-many. The programme is available from the conferencewebsite at https://iuss-division1.uni-hohenheim.de/.“Soils in Space and Time” is one of the key issues doc-umenting the variability of the pedosphere. Soils arevariable but all of us have a limited experience.Therefore it is of utmost importance to exchangeknowledge from time to time and from place toplace. As Division I was established by IUSS pedolo-gists working in related fields of soil morphology,genesis, geography, classification are combined tojoin their efforts in order to improve and communi-cate their knowledge. Especially the dynamic com-missions paleopedology and pedometrics can addnew methods and findings to improve our work. Thisis especially also due to the working groups whichfeel related. This is the first divisional conference -Everybody should try to use the options given. Joinus and make the new experience.

7th International Conference of the Urban SoilsWorking Group, SUITMA, of the International

Union of Soil Sci-ences. NicolausCopernicus Uni-versity of Torun,Poland. SUITMAs(Soils in Urban,Industrial, Traf-fic, Mining and

Military Areas) are one of main components ofurban ecosystem. They are very diverse and hetero-geneous, and fulfill primary functions of utmost im-portance. SUITMA 7 is held in the UNESCO WorldHeritage city of Torun, famous for its gothic archi-tecture. One-day pre-conference tour (NorthernPoland red brick gothic castles), two-day mid-con-

IUSS Alerts December 2011 - May 2012

Information for and from the global soil science community IUSS Alerts are e-mailed to more than 12, 000 people in over 100 countries. If you have information toshare, please send it to hartemink@wisc.edu Below are the still relevant contributions that appeared inthe IUSS Alerts from December 2011 till May 2012.

9MAY 2012

ference field tour (18 & 19 September 2013) will beoffered in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Province and apost-conference tour (20 - 23 September 2013) willbe organized in Poland and Czech Republic, withnot only soils but also interesting social part (brew-eries visiting) included in the program and finish inGolden Prague, Czech capital, to address issues re-lated to urban and industrial soils of Central Eu-rope. We will be very pleased to invite you toparticipate in SUITMA 7 to share your ideas and ex-perience for the benefit of urban communities andSUITMAs. For more information visit conference website:www.suitma7.umk.pl or email PrzemyslawCHARZYNSKI, Chairman of SUITMA 7:suitma7@umk.pl You are also welcomed to joinSUITMA 7 group on Facebook to be instantly in-formed on news and updates concerning the Con-ference.

IUSS Global Soil C Conference, 3-7 June 2013,Madison, USA. The IUSS Global Soil Carbon Confer-ence is an IUSS Division, Commission and WorkingGroup conference that focuses on soil C in spaceand time, soil C properties and processes, soil C inrelation to soil use and management, and the roleof soil C in sustaining society and the environment.All Divisions, Commissions and Working Groups willhave a special symposium highlighting and summa-rizing what is known about soil C in their soil sci-ence subdiscipline. It aims to become a soil scienceintradisciplinary conference focusing on a highlytopical issue: soil C. Each Commission and WorkingGroup will have about 30 to 45 minutes to presenttheir work. It will be done in plenary and no sepa-rate sessions are planned in order to exploit the fullbenefits of the intradisciplinary approach. An ap-proximately planning is given on the IUSS website:www.iuss.orgSee ‘IUSS Global Soil C Workshop’. More information soon.

XVII Conference of the International Soil ConservationOrganization (ISCO) “Environmental Sustainabilitythrough Soil Conservation”, 08 - 12 July 2013, Medellin,Colombia . ISCO (International Soil Conservation Or-ganization) is an organization whose main aim is to pro-mote the sustainable, productive and efficient use ofsoil and water resources around the world. With thisobjective, ISCO periodically organizes conferencesevery 2 to 3 years to analyze and exchange the latest in-formation and research, addressed to find solutions to

the increasing degradation problems of the basic re-sources soil and water, on which the very sustainabilityof life on earth is based. To date, sixteen ISCO confer-ences have been held, covering regions and continentsaround the world, with different bio-physical, cultural,social and economic conditions. Deadlines: Receptionof short abstract: 31 December 2012; Reception of ex-tended abstract: 31 March 2013 (More details in fur-ther announcements). More information: Luz Marina Otalora scsuelo@cable.net.coIldefonso Pla Sentis ipla@macs.udl.catSamir El-Swaify elswaify@hawaii.eduMore information and web page soon.

6th International Nitrogen Conference (N2013)18-22 November 2013, Kampala, Uganda.www.N2013.orgTheme: Just enough N: Perspectives on how to getthere for “too much” and “too little” Regions. Con-trasting access to reactive nitrogen (Nr) has led toeither its excessive use in the production of food andenergy, resulting in numerous negative ecologicaland human health consequences, or in inadequateaccess that consigns such regions to unsustainableagricultural production, land degradation, and foodand nutritional insecurity. Scientific and socio-eco-nomic studies continue to be conducted in both sce-narios so as to identify Nr issues and solutions, novelapproaches and policy support for implementationof the solutions, and priorities for further researchand development. N2013 will provide a platform forsharing the state of knowledge on the impact of toomuch or too little use of Nr on the nitrogen cycle,human health and ecosystems in the different re-gions of the world. It will declare its position on theuse of external Nr sources in stimulating increase infood production and rural development, while tak-ing into account prevention of its negative impactsfor “too little” regions. Convener: Mateete Bekunda,African Nitrogen Centre (mateeteb@yahoo.com).Host: National Agricultural Research Organisation,Uganda. Contact: Crammer K. Kaizzi (kckaizzi@gmail.com)

News from the British Society of Soil SciencePosters and Leaflets - The British Society of Soil Sci-ence have developed 8 topical soil education postersand accompanying leaflets which are free to downloadfrom their website at www.soils.org.uk/pages/educa-tion/education-downloadsThe 2012 annual meeting - Soil Science with re-spect to Global Food Security will be hosted by theUniversity of Nottingham. The meeting will focus onthe required contributions and potential opportu-nities for soil science with respect to Global FoodSecurity. The forecasted increasingly variableweather patterns will influence the environmentand its ability to support sustainable food produc-tion. Major challenges include water scarcity, a de-crease availability of key inputs to food production,managing carbon and differing local impacts of cli-mate change. Soil science is at the heart of all theseissues. The meeting will consist of two days withfour sessions strongly related to the main themeand an un-themed session where presentationsfrom any aspect of soil science are encouraged. Weinvite you to contribute oral and poster abstracts tothis meeting, the deadline for submissions is the 1stMay 2012. For further information please see the websitewww.soils.org.uk/events/event-88/

Special Issue on Soil as a Source & Sink for Greenhouse Gases

Science of the Total Environ-ment; Guest Editors: NanthiBolan, Mary Beth Kirkham andSurinder Saggar. In view of the in-terest in soils as a source and sinkof greenhouse emission in rela-tion to global climate change, theEditors of the Science of the Total

Environment have agreed to devote a thematic spe-cial issue to this topic. This Special Issue aims togather all interested researchers in terrestrialecosystems in which soil is used as a sink for carbonsequestration and to reduce greenhouse emissionsin order to manage climate change. Confirmation ofyour contribution before 31st March 2012 includingthe title, the list of authors and potential reviewers(email to Nanthi.Bolan@unisa.edu.au). Submissionis 31 September, 2012. Please closely follow theGuide to Authors which can be found on: www.jour-

nals.elsevier.com/science-of-the-total-environment/and indicate in your submission that your paper isfor that special issue.

Classical ISSS Publications 1909 -1952The first International Conference of Agrogeologywas organized in Budapest in 1909. It was followedby several meetings and eventually resulted in theestablishment of the International Society of Soil Sci-ence (ISSS) in 1924. All the proceedings of theseearly meetings as well as the ISSS newsletters (Inter-nationalen Mitteilungen fur Bodenkunde 1911-1924;Soil Research 1928-1944) have been scanned and areavailable as PDF on the IUSS website: www.iuss.orgSee ‘IUSS Publications 1909-1952’ to browsethrough these books and proceedings. Some PDFs are rather large; use <Control F> tosearch through these PDFs – lots of classical papersand soil science information!

Sports Meets Science Meets ArtsDuring a bike trip from Austria to Thailand WolfgangBurtscher, the Innsbruck sportsman and artist issampling dirt ‘tripmarks’ on laid paper, producing365 daily pieces of art. These tripmarks raised theinterest of Heribert Insam, University of Innsbrucksoil microbiologist. Everything is everywhere? Doesthe microbiota collected in the tread of a bicycle tirechange while biking around the globe, or works thebicycle tire as a vector of microorganisms? At the In-stitute of Microbiology the enthusiastic biker Jo-hanna Mayerhofer is devoting her Master’s Thesis tothis project with an uncommon sampling strategy.To embark together on this journey have a look atthe route and contact Wolfgang or Heribertwww.tripmarks.at or www.microbiology.uibk.ac.at

AdvertisementsThe IUSS offers possibilities for advertisements inthe IUSS Alert, Website and Bulletin. This could in-clude book or meeting announcements, job vacan-cies, or soil research and teaching equipment. TheIUSS Alerts reach 12,000 soil scientists across theglobe and are send out by e-mail every month. Fortariffs and advertisement possibilities, please con-tact the Secretary General at hartemink@wisc.eduor Treasurer at Jim.Gauld@hutton.ac.uk

IUSS BULLETIN 12010

Global Soil Science EducationThe Monitoring Soil Science Project is a global soil sci-ence education project. It seeks to establish innovativeand ongoing student-soil scientist partnerships. Theproject enables school students to receive training inscientific methodologies with support of a soil scien-tist as a mentor. The website has resources for teachersand students. An initial emphasis on soil fauna is usedto attract the attention of students and the project canbe expanded to include any aspect of soil science.http://soils.duit.uwa.edu.au/index.php The Monitor-ing Soil Science Project is an initiative of IUSS Division4. For further information, contact Lyn Abbott (emailLynette.Abbott@uwa.edu.au)

MAY 2012 11

5 questions to Daniela Sauer

Position: Substituting the currently unoccupiedposition of the Chair of Landscape Sciencesand Geoecology (since May 2011),Present Chair of IUSS Commission 1.6Palaeopedology

Age: 41Address: Institute of Geography,

Dresden University of Technology,Helmholtzstr. 10, Dresden, Germany

E-mail: daniela.sauer@uni-hohenheim.de

1. When did you decide to study soil science?After finishing school I felt a strong wish to studysomething enabling me to do a job that would insome way be useful to society. I decided to studyecology. However, I then realized that I was unsatis-fied by learning just a little of each discipline com-prised in the ecology program. Hence, I set a timelimit to myself: Until that date I had to choose onediscipline to study more deeply. I think that it wasthe enthusiasm of my soil science teacher WolfgangBurghardt and my geomorphology & sedimentologyteacher Gerd Schellmann that infected me so thatsoon my choice was clear: Soil Science

2. Who has been your most influential teacher?Two teachers that gave direction to my career veryearly have already been mentioned. Two otherswere my PhD supervisor Peter Felix-Henningsen(Chair of the German Palaeopedology Group at thattime) and Karl Stahr with whom I have worked foralmost nine years - and I have continuously beenlearning from him in each of these nine years. Be-

sides Karl’s enormous experience and pedologicalknowledge, I am particularly impressed by the en-thusiasm with which he is forwarding his knowledgeto students and young scientists, and introducingsoils also to school classes and to the public.

3. What do you find most exciting about soil science?It is the complexity of soils and the very different as-pects (pedogenetical, physical, biological, chemical,mineralogical…) that can be studied in soils and thathave led to a variety of sub-disciplines within soil sci-ence. However, I feel that the more we specialize themore important becomes interaction between sub-disciplines. Otherwise we will achieve progress inthe special aspects that each of us is investigatingbut we won’t obtain an integral understanding ofthose complex systems. The most exciting thing forme personally is the “memory” of soils. I remembervery well a field excursion with my geomorphologyteacher where probably the seed for my laterpalaeopedological career was laid: We visited agravel quarry, where glacial till, glacio-fluvial de-posits with sand wedges, clayey sediments of an ice-dammed lake and alluvial sediments with paleosolswere exposed. He left small groups of students atdifferent sites along the quarry walls and told us:“When I come back you tell me your story of the de-velopment of this landscape.” This seemed really ex-citing to me! I still feel that fascination each time Idiscover an instructive sediment-paleosol sequence.

4. How would you stimulate teenagers and younggraduates to study soil science? By SHOWING soils to them in the field. A few timesI have shown soil profiles to school classes. Thepupils usually had never seen a soil profile beforeand had of course never thought of soil as a four-di-mensional body that develops over thousands ofyears, is home to an unimaginably large number oforganisms and performs ecological services of fun-damental importance. I have seen many studentsbecoming fascinated by soils through studying themin a soil pit. I am convinced that a major problem isthat in normal life soils are perceived as a two-di-mensional area that may be more or less suitable fordifferent types of use. When students discover theworld under that area many of them start to under-stand.

IUSS BULLETIN 12012

5 questions to a soil scientist

5. How do you see the future of soil science?I think that the future of soil science dependsstrongly on the awareness of politicians of the im-portance of soils….which I guess correlates nega-tively with the undamped speed by which the mostfertile soils in the area where I live continue to besealed. Because of the common 2D perception ofsoils it is much more difficult to draw the public’sand politicians’ attention to soils than to forests,drinking water, air quality etc.. The University whereI graduated still has master programs in “Environ-mental Toxicology” and “Water Sciences” but theyclosed the Soil Science Department…. We need towork on this 2D problem in order to raise the politi-cians’ awareness of the importance of soils. Other-wise, why should they support research in soilscience in economically difficult times?

5 questions to Suk Young Hong

Position: Senior Researcher (since 2008, 1995~ :Researcher)

Age: 44Address: National Academy of Agricultural Science,

RDA150 Suin-ro, Gweonsun-gu, Suwon 441-707Republic of Korea

E-mail: syhong67@korea.kr

1. When did you decide to study soil science?In 1995, I joined a remote sensing job in SoilManagement Division, National Academy of Agri-cultural Science (NAAS), RDA as a researcher.Since then I started to study soils in earnest. Ac-tually I didn’t decide to study soil science by my-self but the given jobs made me study soils. Ihave worked on VIS/NIR spectroscopy for esti-mating soil properties and land use & land coverclassification using satellite images in Korea. Ihave managed national soils database of Koreaand operating information system and service

since 2004. I also do crop yield estimation basedon remotely sensed data including optical andradar data.

2. Who has been your most influential teacher?Since I studied just a couple of soil classes in univer-sity, crop physiology, remote sensing, and agricul-tural meteorology before I joined Soil ManagementDivision, RDA, I don’t have any influential teacher insoil science classes in university but in remote sens-ing and crop science parts. My colleagues workingwith me in my soils division are all teachers of mine.Budiman Minasny and Alex McBratney have been mymost influential teachers in soil science since thefirst Global Workshop on Digital Soil Mapping whichwas held in Montpellier, France in 2004. Theybrought me to DSM community and I am learningfrom them and the community.

3. What do you find most exciting about soil science?Mapping soil functions is the most exciting part tome. Mapping the capabilities of soils is important forvarious agricultural, environmental, and ecologicalapplications and the soil maps can depict soil prop-erties and specific soil functions.

4. How would you stimulate teenagers and younggraduates to study soil science? I would like to show them the movie ‘Wall-E’ andthen to say that “you are the key persons to save theearth”.

5. How do you see the future of soil science?No life without soil and no soil without life, so soilequals life.

MAY 2012 13

By Lynn Abbott, the University of Western Australia

The Monitoring Soil Science Project is a global soilscience education project seeking to establish in-novative and ongoing student-soil scientist partner-ships. It was designed for high school students, buthas information suitable for students of all ages.The project takes soil scientists into the classroomas mentors to science teachers, to explore scienceinitiatives with students that are focused on soiland introduce students to the concept of soil sci-ence, the importance of soils in the environment,and the relevance of soil to the climate change de-bate. On-going partnerships between schools andlocal farming organizations can form around thisproject.

School students:• participate in ‘real’, meaningful science activities;• follow scientific protocols to collect valid and reli-

able data;• distinguish between the physical, chemical and bi-

ological aspects of the soil ecosystem;• interpret patterns and trends in data, and compare

their results with students at other schools who will have different soil types and land man-agement practices, and

• develop their own soil science project.

Students can be trained in scientific methodologies, in-cluding sampling strategies, which they use to collectdata related to the biological, chemical and physical as-

IUSS BULLETIN 12014

Working Group Reports:Schools Monitoring Soils

Science teachers at a professional development day run by the SPICE program checking instructions for soil analysis

during the pilot of the Monitoring Soil Science Project. Image: Lyn Abbott

pects of soil. There will be an opportunity for studentsto upload their results onto a shared online database.The project is intended to be ongoing with expertisebuilding according to science topics of local interestbased on monitoring soil conditions. Once an area ofland is identified near the school, it can be studied fromyear to year by different cohorts of students.

In the first year of the project the schools collect aminimum of two data sets. With the help of their localsoil science expert as mentor, two plots of land areidentified at or near the school. It’s suggested that 4m x 4 m plots become the school’s permanent studysites, but additional sites could be included. The soilscience mentor helps characterise the site, explainthe soil type and demonstrate methods for collectingsoil samples for analysis at a chemical laboratory.

The first discussion with the students involves howand where the soil samples should be taken. Sam-pling strategies and the concepts of replication andvariability are introduced. Subsequently, the stu-dents set up experiments at the reference site bygrowing plants, adding compost or fertiliser etc.

A website has been established to support thisglobal soil project for schools: http://soils.duit.uwa.edu.au/index.php

The website includes fact sheets, general instructions,podcasts about the methods for soil sampling and ex-traction of soil fauna, information about soil fauna, in-formation for teachers and for the soil science mentorcollaborating with the science teacher. Participants mayseek the support of a local chemical laboratory for soilanalyses. Once a school is registered on the project,students can upload their results onto the website,which will be available to students and scientists acrossthe world. With time, comparative information will be-come available and schools may communicate witheach other about their findings – especially about howtheir soils differ. Initially this could include comparisonsof the biodiversity of soil fauna in different parts of theglobe or in relation to climate, soil type and land use.

In the first instance, students learn how to collectand quantify soil fauna. Additional resources willadded to the website from time to time, includinglinks to related sites, and suggestions for studentprojects which range widely across the soil sciencedisciplines. Suggestions for example modules whichcould be added are welcome.

The Monitoring Soil Science Project was initiatedthrough discussions with Professor Lyn Beazley, theChief Scientist of Western Australia, who had the vi-sion of schools participating in real science researchthat was related to climate change. Professor Lyn Ab-bott from The University of Western Australia’sSchool of Earth and Environment defined the con-cept for the project and has overseen its develop-ment into a global school science initiative with theinternational soil science community.

School students participating in the Australian Na-tional PICSE program at The University of WesternAustralia played an important role in establishing thescope of the project. Subsequently, the project hasevolved primarily with support from SPICE, a sec-ondary teachers’ enrichment program at The Univer-sity of Western Australia. The resources developedin the SPICE project have been crucial for the Moni-toring Soil Science Project because they were basedon discussion with, and feedback from teachers whotrialed the resources. So far there have been two pi-lots of the Monitoring Soil Science Project withschools in Western Australia (2009 and 2010).

The Monitoring Soil Science Project is an initiative ofDivision 4 (The Role of Soils in Sustaining Society andthe Environment) of the International Union of SoilSciences (IUSS). IUSS contributed financial assistancefor website development.

MAY 2012 15

Warwick Mathews, science teacher from Shenton Col-

lege, Perth examining soil fauna. Image: Lyn Abbott

GlobalSoilMap.net – Data ModelTask Group Report April 2012

By Peter Wilson, CSIRO

The Data Model Task Group has not been active asfar as specific tasks related to GlobalSoilMap.net re-quirements. This is mainly due to the ongoing lackof dedicated resources for GlobalSoilMap.net whichmeans activity must be related to other business ofthe participating agencies therefore limiting the spe-cific prioritisation of GlobalSoilMap.net.

Since the last meeting in Ispra Italy, the DM TaskGroup has had limited communication and has nothad opportunity to meet.

The nomination of active members from the Globa-SoilMap Nodes remains limited.

Related ActivityBoth Australia (CSIRO) and New Zealand (Landcare Re-search) have recently secured dedicated skills in infor-mation modeling and have individually made progresswith activity related to the GlobalSoilMap.net needsover the last 3 months.

Australian activity has focused on developing a ‘fea-ture’ based information model which can potentiallycover all ‘soil’ related data and information andallow the transfer and collation of standardised soiland landscape data. The soil feature centric model,called OzSoilML (since it currently utilises Australianstandardised terminology), may be considered forbroader international application following furtherinvestigation of its suitability and wider agreementon concepts and vocabularies through the IUSSWorking Group on Soil Information Standards. Oz-SoilML has been developed in consideration of otherexisting international standards initiatives, includingEU Inspire (GS-soil), eSoter, ISO Soil Quality, and FAOHarmonised World Soil Database, as well as theproduct specification needs of GlobalSoilMap.net.

The key advantage of the OzSoilML approach is inthe real-world-feature centric viewpoint (Figure 1). Itidentifies three main soil related features of inter-

est, being the Landscape (the biophysical and an-thropocentric context), the LandSurface (the physi-cal form of the associated terrain) and the Soil (theactual complex biological material, including theprofile, surface, layers and horizons that make upthe soil). The Landscape feature may contain manyelements (such as the biota, climate, hydrology, ge-ology etc) many of which are (or should be) definedby other communities of practice. The LandSurfacefeature provides the physical surface expression ofthe terrain associated with particular soil associa-tions. The Soil feature is the soil material itself, andis made up of SoilProfile, SoilSurface and SoilLayer(a specified depth slice, which may be specialised asa SoilHorizon if of pedogenic origin) features.

The OzSoilML conceptual model should allow trans-fer and collation of all soil data, including that re-lated to location specific observations and analyses(site data), summarized and synthesised attributedata traditionally associated with soil map entities,and DSM derived estimates of soil properties for de-fined spatial entities (such as raster/grids as speci-fied by the Australian TERN Soil and LandscapeFacility and GlobalSoilMap.net specifications).

Work by the Informatics group of NZ Landcare Re-search has focussed on specialisaton of the interna-tional standard ‘Observation and Measurements’information model to the GlobalSoilMap.net Specifi-cations. This is complimentary to the OzSoilML ac-tivity discussed above as it provides the specificcontent model for soil properties and spatial ele-ments identified in the GlobalSoilMap.net Specifica-tions. In this way the provision of data productscompliant with GlobalSoilMap.net specifications canbe seen as a ‘use case’ for the broader applicationof OzSoilML.

Future ProgressionThe DM Working Group now proposes to progressthe development and harmonisation of OzSoilMLand the specific use case for GlobalSoilMap.net, ata meeting in NZ in August 2012 under the auspices

IUSS BULLETIN 12016

of the IUSS WG-SIS and in collaboration with relatedactivities in the GeoSciML community. This meetingwill also look at other ‘use cases’ for the develop-ment of specific ‘profiles’ of OzSoilML, such as re-quirements for SINFERS and to the extent possible,the other international initiatives noted above. Inthis way OzSoilML may be progressed as the core foran international standard SoilML.

Further development specific to GlobalSoilMap.netwill require consideration of the outcomes of boththe Specifications and CyberInfrastructure TaskGroups. As an example is the current Global-SoilMap.net specification of the property clay%,which has already been identified as requiring moreexplicit definition of the particle size fraction size

being reported due to international variation. Froma generically applicable information modelling per-spective it is likely that the ‘property’ would be bet-ter identified as {particle size fraction, size min, sizemax, unit of measure} so would be applicable to allfraction ranges and names currently defined by local,national and international schemes. Other ‘proper-ties’ being estimated for GlobalSoilMap.net productsmay also need to be defined in such generic termswhich more explicitly reflect the actual propertybeing evaluated.

MAY 2012 17

Figure 1. Central Feature of Interest concepts and relationships within the draft OzSoilML information model March 2012.

Prof. Maria Alfredovna Glazovskaya got her 100 yearjubilee on January 26, 2012. She is great pedologistwidely known for her two-volume monograph“SOILS of the WORLD” (1983, 1984), the handbook(coauthor I.P.Gerasimov) “Fundamentals of Soil Sci-ence and Soil Geography” (1965) and many otherbooks and papers. Together with her teacher BorisPolynov and her colleague Alexander Perelman shegave birth to the new discipline – Geochemistry oflandscapes. Now this concept became the basis forenvironmental studies of contaminants migration inlandscapes. M.Glazovskaya is famous for her studieson the soil formation and weathering in Antarcticand alpine landscapes, Australia, Norway, the devel-opment of catena concept, geochemistry of naturaland man-induced landscapes, cycles of carbon indeep soil and under-soil horizons (pedolithogenesis),global and continental soil mapping and many otherfields. During her long career MariaGlazovskaya hasbeen a Vice-president of the All-Union (Soviet) Soci-ety of Soil Science, a member of the InternationalCommission on land use, a member of the advisory

committee of the FAO-UNESCO, National Committeeof SCOPE, for many years she has been active in in-ternational organizations.

M.A.Glazovskaya was born in Saint-Petersburg,graduated from the Leningrad University. Then shewas a post-graduate student in this university andafter getting her doctor degree moved to Kaza-khstan (1939-1952), have been working in the Insti-tute of Soil Science, Kazakh Academy of sciences. In1952 she was invited to the Moscow State Univer-sity. In the years 1959-1987 Maria Glazovskaya hasbeen the Head, and from 1987 until the presenttime she is a consulting professor of the Chair ofGeochemistry of landscapes and Soil Geography,Department of Geography, Moscow State Univer-sity. She is the Distinguished Professor of MoscowState University, an honorary member of the Russ-ian Geographical Society and the Dokuchaev SoilScience Society.

We managed to visit Prof. Maria Glazovskaya in daysof her 100-years jubilee and after a lot of congratu-lations took a short interview.

Where did you study?I began my study in the Leningrad (previous name ofSaint-Petersburg) Agricultural Institute. It was be-cause my mother was a school teacher but only chil-dren of peasants and workers had right to study in auniversity at that beginning of Stalin epoch(1929).This institute was located in the same placewhere the great poet Alexander Pushkin was edu-cated in the Lyceum in 1810s and I was living in thesame building. It was really impressive. I saw myselfas a specialist in plant selection but this specialtywas cancelled at the second year of my student life.With the help of my friend’s father I managed to getinto the Leningrad University, soil-geological-geo-graphical department. It was really my alma-materand I appreciated very much that great scientistswere teaching me.

IUSS BULLETIN 12018

Maria Glazovskaya is 100 Years Young! Jubilee Interview

Who was your supervisor?A person whom I really recognize as my supervisorwas Prof. Boris Polynov. At that time theDokuchaev Soil Science Institute was in Leningrad,and Polynov was working there. I also met VictorKovda at that time. Being a student and then apost-graduate student I was working with him inCaspian region.

What was your thesis about? You know that in Russia, as well as in many Europeancountries we have two scientific degrees. The firstthesis for the degree equal to Ph.D. was named inold-fashion style “Materials on the study of soil com-plex of Law Volga region”. It was done in 1936. Andthe thesis was about dry-steppe and semi-desertlandscapes and arid soils of Caspian terraces. Mysecond thesis was done when I was working in Kaza-khstan. It has a title “Inner Tian Shan as a mountain-ous territory of Central Asia”. This thesis was resultof my long-term studies of soil formation, weather-ing and geography of soils and landscapes in Tian

Shan. At that time the usual transport for my studieswere horses. I was a really good rider spendingmany-many hours in the saddle.

How did you get into soil science?Being a girl raised in St. Petersburg I did not know alot about the soil science. I decided to be a medicaldoctor and was passing exams to the Medical insti-tute. Unexpectedly, besides professional questions,they showed me several portraits of different Bol-shevik leaders – I failed to recognize most of them.At that time my professional knowledge was notenough and I failed my exam to the Medical insti-tute. I started my education in the Agricultural Insti-tute and continued in the Leningrad University as Itold before. Needing money I went to summer expe-ditions of the Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute.There I had my first experience in soil science.

Who inspired you into soil science?I think that Victor Kovda was this person. Afterwardshe became a famous soil scientist, the President of

MAY 2012 19

Maria Glazovskaya (sitting right) with her former students and colleagues Victor Targulian (staying left), Sergey Gory-

achkin (staying right) and Nina Karavaeva (sitting left) on the day of 100 years

the International Society of Soil Science (1968-1974)but at that time he was a young and very bright spe-cialist in soil science. Coming into the group of BorisPolynov I realized that soil science would be the oc-cupation of all my life.

How did your career develop?After graduating from the Leningrad University I be-came a post-graduate student working in the aridCaspian region. Then I married young philologist whowas born in the Caucasus region and did not like therainy and cool climate of Leningrad. He asked me tochoose the place in the south where we would liveafter my post-graduate time. We have chosen Kaza-khstan and Almaty city. I was working there as a soilscientist and geographer for 13 years. In 1952 Kon-stantin Markov, the famous paleogeographer, whowas a Dean of the Department of Geography invitedme to the Lomonossov Moscow State University. In1957-59 I was the Head of the Chair of Physical Geog-raphy of the USSR and afterwards I became the Headof the Chair of the Geochemistry of Landscapes andSoil Geography. It was the longest period of my ca-reer. Until 1987 I headed this Chair of the Depart-ment of Geography, Moscow University.

Did you travel?Living in the Soviet Union and never being the mem-ber of the Communist party it was not easy to travelabroad. So, most of my travel covers the area of Rus-sia and other republics of the USSR. Besides Kaza-khstan and other regions of Central Asia I wasworking in Ural region, European Russia, Baltic re-publics, Kama region, Far East, Caucasus and manyother places. I also managed to visit Australia, Nor-way, Sweden, UK, China and had several publicationson relevant soils. Usually, I got my abroad experienceduring the trips to scientific conferences and con-gresses and field excursions.

How did you write the SOILS OF THE WORLD books?I did not consider these books to be something veryimportant in my scientific activity. First of all, theyare handbooks. Being invited to the Moscow Univer-sity I was in charge to prepare the special course forsoils of the world and continents. I analyzed a lot ofsoil maps and books and papers in different lan-guages. Then I suggested the systematic of soils ofthe World and some general trends of their distribu-tion. I have a special experience dealing with soils ofAustralia and even publish a book on it. Being in Aus-tralia I met Prof. J.A.Prescott. He made me a compli-

ment that I had understood the general trends ofsoil geography of Australia very well and asked mewhen I had been to this continent. He was very sur-prised that I was for the first time during the con-gress and had written the book only on the basis ofthe literature analysis. So, the volumes Soils of theWorld are mostly handbooks, but I happy that theyhad some popularity in the world. I wish my lastbook published in 2010 “Pedolithogenesis and Con-tinental Cycles of Carbon” did have a small part ofthis popularity.

Hope it will be not your last book and we’ll see thenew one soon. On behalf of the world soil sciencecommunity our best wishes on occasion of yourGreat Jubilee!

Sergey Goryachkin

IUSS BULLETIN 12020

On 10 April, 10, 2012, Professor Igor Krupenikov hascelebrated his 100th birthday.

Krupenikov is well known to soil scientists inMoldova, where he was a leader of soil research dur-ing at least half a century; at all the Post-Soviet spacehe is recognized as a leading expert on chernozemsand a unique historian of soil science.

Krupenikov was born in St. Petersburg. His father,engineer in viticulture, participated in the FirstWorld War; his mother was a philologist. After grad-uating the Soil-biological faculty of MoscowLomonosov University, Krupenikov worked in a Nau-rzum steppe natural reserve (Kazakhstan), then inTashkent and Yalta, where he started writing biog-raphies of great scientists – Dokuchaev and Kosty-chev. In 1948, he was invited to Chisinau by NikolayDimo, who organized the Soil institute there; since

those times, all his activities are closely related toMoldova, its nature, people, soils and their conser-vation.

Three “red lines” may be traced in the scientific workof Krupenikov: regional, namely, soil surveys and re-sources including the soil cover patterns, soil gene-sis; chernozems – his love and great concern, andhistory of soil science (his book analyzing the evolu-tion of soil knowledge since Antiquity to nowadayswas translated into English in 1992-1993) and biog-raphies of more than 30 well-known pedologists, ge-ographers, travelers. Krupenikov has manypublications on Moldavian soils and, particularly,chernozems starting with his Dr.Sc. thesis in 1966 –“Chernozems of Moldavia” and also maps, popularenvironmentally-oriented booklets. The title of hismain book of 2008 on chernozems is quite unusual,exhaustive, and needs no comments: “Chernozems.Emergence, perfection, tragedy of degradation, waysof protection and renaissance”. This wonderful bookwas slightly reduced to an English version ”The Blackearth (ecological principles for sustainable agricul-ture on Chernozem Soils)”, Springer, 2011, whichKrupenikov prepared with his colleague BorisBoincean and Editor David Dent.

We wish Professor Krupenikov good health andmany friendly contacts in the beginning of his newcentury.

Maria Gerasimova,Professor, D.Sc., Soil Geography Department,Geography Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University

MAY 2012 21

Professor Igor KrupenikovThe Centennial Jubilee of the Famous Soil Scientist in Moldova/Russia

At the 17th World Congress of Soil Science held inBangkok in 2002, Council decided to recognise De-cember 5th as World Soil Day. This particular daywas chosen because it is the birthday of His MajestyKing Bhumibol Adulyadej, King of Thailand. The Kinghad given considerable support in the developmentof the 17th World Congress and one of the key ex-hibits at the Congress illustrated the considerable ef-forts undertaken by the King and the programmeshe has supported to promote sustainable soil man-agement in Thailand. The focus of these efforts areto inform and educate the small holder farmer in ap-propriate soil management practices. Following theCongress I together with Irb Kheoruenromne (IUSSVice President 1998-2002) and colleagues in theSoils and Fertiliser Society of Thailand were involvedin discussions with representatives of the King aboutobtaining Royal approval for our World Soil Day pro-posal. At the 19th World Congress held in Brisbane,Council approved a proposal to recognize the con-tinued efforts of the King of Thailand in promotingsustainable soil management by recognizing him asIUSS Humanitarian Soil Scientist. One of my last actsas Secretary General was to inform the Palace inThailand of this award.

In early April 2012 I received from the Royal Palacein Thailand an invitation to an audience with HisRoyal Highness. My predecessor as Secretary Gen-eral, Winfried Blum, was also invited as this processhad begun when he was Secretary General at the17th World Congress. The date for the audience waseventually fixed at April 16th in the early evening.Winfried Blum and I attended together with Irb Khe-oruenromne, S. Theerawong (IUSS President 1998-2002), representatives of the Soils and FertiliserSociety of Thailand and Bob Gilkes representing theIUSS Membership. The opening part of the audi-ence was formal, involving introductions and a for-mal citation to the King given by me. I presented theKing with the IUSS Humanitarian Soil Scientistmedal. He thanked me and IUSS for the award, afterwhich he asked me to sit by him to chat. We chattedfor almost 50 minutes, principally about soils and

soil management, ranging across subjects such aspreventing soil erosion and managing acid sulphatesoils (he had spent some considerable time in thefield with Moorman investigating acid sulphatesoils). We also discussed the possibility of Thailandtaking our proposal to the United Nations that De-cember 5th be internationally recognized as WorldSoil Day.

The presentation and meeting was an outstandingsuccess. It was a real pleasure to have such a wideranging discussion with the King about soils and soilmanagement. Our meeting was the first public ap-pearance of the King for some time; consequently itwas considered a major national event. Because ofthis IUSS and the award were the first item on theevening TV news bulletins and a front page item onthe daily newspapers. Later in the week, WinfriedBlum, Bob Gilkes and I were interviewed as part of adocumentary being prepared on the King and Sus-tainable Soil Management.

This was the culmination of numerous letters andemails over a number of years, but it was certainly amost memorable occasion which I am convinced willensure greater public awareness of the importanceof soils and sustainable soil management in Thailandand beyond.

Stephen Nortcliff, Reading

IUSS BULLETIN 12022

IUSS Humanitarian Soil Scientist

Dr. John Jacob Mortvedt joined his Lord and Savioron March 13, 2012, IN Fort Collins, Colorado, aftersuffering a stroke. He was 80 years old. John wasborn on January 25, 1932, to Ernst and ClaraMordvedt of Dell Rapids, South Dakota, where hespent hid childhood on their farm. He earned hisB.S. degree in agronomy from South Dakota StateUniversity in 1953. And Married Marlene nee Fod-ness in Rapid City, South Dakota on January 23,1955. After serving as an aviator with the Army forthree years and farming for one year, He earned theM.S. degree in soil science from SDSU in 1959 andthe Ph.D. in soil chemistry from the University ofWisconsin in 1962.

Dr. Mortvedt’s professional career was with the Ten-nessee Valley Authority in Muscle Shoals, Alabama,as a soil chemist in the Agricultural Research Depart-ment until 1987 when he earned the TVA BronzeHonor Awarded, then as a senior scientist until 1992.He transferred to Fort Collins, Colorado, as a regional

manager serving tne Rocky Mountain area in theTVA Field Programs Department, retiring on July 9.,1933. He served as an Extension Specialist at Col-orado State University through 1996 and was a Pro-fessor Emeritus.

Dr. Mortvedt’s major research programs were con-cerned with factors affecting soil reactions andplant availability of micronutrients and micronutri-ent fertilizers. He evaluated numerous commercialfertilizers as well as potential products. Results ofhis research were published in 65 technical papers,11 book chapters, and over 35 nontechnical papersin trade journals and symposia proceedings. Hisstudies of reactions of heavy metals in soils havebeen used by the EPA and other agencies, and he iscredited as inventor on two patents. At ColoradoState University, John revised or supervised the re-vision of the fertilizer suggestions for all major cropsin Colorado.

In 1979 Dr, Mortvedt was awared the title of Fellowin the American Society of Agronomy and the SoilScience Society of America, then ten years later inthe American Association for the Advancement ofScience. The SSSA awarded him its ProfessionalService Award in 1991 and Distinguished ServiceAward in 1996. His successful nomination for theAgronomic Service Award notes that “even today heremains the foremost authority on micronutrientfertilizer technology and the recommended meth-ods of application”. The SSSA elevated John to itsPresidency in 1989, and he served on its Board ofDirectors from 1981 - 1990, Executive Committefrom 1987-1990, and as editor in chief from 1982-1987. Colleagues around the nation write thatJohn’s “has been an exemplary career of dedicatedservice that would be difficult, if not impossible, tomatch” and that he serves well as a role model foryoung scientists.

John has visited over 30 countries, many as a con-sultant and lecturer, and was a frequent speakeraround the United States at soil fertility and fertil-

MAY 2012 23

In Memoriam

John Mortvedt 1932 - 2012

izer meetings. He is the senior author of the booksFertilizer Technology and Application and FarmChemicals Handbook which are widely used in agri-culture. He is also co-editor of the internationallypopular reference and textbook Micronutrients inAgriculture, and the Iron Research Work Group hehelped found in 1974 produced symposium sieresaround the world. He is an honorary member of theColumbian Soil Science Society (South America).John served as President of the Exchange Club of Flo-rence, Alabama, sang in church choirs and served incongressional leadership for many years, and wasPresident of the Florence Toastmasters. He lovedgolfing and football, handyman and outdoor projectsvisiting with friends and traveling around the world.God and his family were John’s greatest joys. He wasa loving husband, father grandfather, grandfather,and friends to many. His humble, sincere, andfriendly demeanor will be deeply missed.

He is survived by his wife Marlene daughters Sheryl(David) Jarratt, Lori (Gary) Klopf, and Julie (Chris)Stride, and grandchildren : Daniel (Andrea) Michaeland Andrew Jarratt; Marcia and Brian Klopf; Jack,Britta, and Brooke Stride. He is also survived by hissister Lucille (Phill) Ramstad and Audrey (Duane)Mortensen, brother Robert (Becky), sisters MarilynTerwilliger Jeanne (Ken) Steinarter, brother-in-lawElmer Petersen and many nieces and nephews. Johnis paroceeded in death by his parents and his sisterCarole Petersen. Dr. John Jacob Mordvedt willburied at Stordahl Cemetery near Dell Rapids, SouthDakota.

IUSS BULLETIN 12024

Responding to the Global Soil Crisis - UN Rio+20 Side Event 24 April 2012 United Nations, New York

Three IUSS members recently addressed a meetingat the United Nations in New York.Global soil degradation is increasingly being recog-nised as a threat to food security, biodiversity andfresh water security. Scientists, alarmed that therate of topsoil loss is now exceeding the rate of soilformation, are determining the environmental sus-tainability thresholds for soil erosion and calculat-ing the timescales at which the world runs out oftopsoil. At the same time, the fundamental role ofsoil in the delivery of ecosystem services includingfood and fibre production, fresh water regulationand support of biodiversity, has largely been ig-nored in international policy. Given projected in-creases in global population this issue now hascritical significance.To bring further attention to the issue of global soildegradation, and to build support for the issue to beaddressed at Rio+20, the Australian Governmenthosted a side event to the negotiations for Rio+20 atthe United Nations in New York on Tuesday 24thApril. The Hon Robert Hill, former Australian Ambas-sador to the UN, chaired the event, which was openedby the current Australian ambassador Mr Gary Quin-lan . Speakers included members of the Soil CarbonInitiative international coalition of soil scientists, IUSSvon Liebig medallist Professor Rattan Lal from OhioState University, and IUSS Deputy Secretary GeneralProfessor Alex McBratney from the University of Syd-ney. Dr Neil McKenzie, Chief of Land and Water CSIROand former vice-chair of IUSS Division 1, representedthe Australian Government. The UN Convention onthe prevention of Desertification and Drought(UNCCD) was represented by Dr Nandhini Iya Krishna,from the UNCCD New York Liaison Office.The Benin Ambassador to the UN and representa-tives from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO), the European Commission, the Ghana Missionto the UN, the Institute for Advanced SustainabilityStudies in Potsdam, Germany, the United States De-partment of Agriculture and the Savory Institute re-sponded to the presentations.

For more information, contact Andrea Koch, Pro-gram Leader, Soil Carbon Initiative at:andrea.koch@sydney.edu.auand see: http://ussc.edu.au/events/past/UN-Rio20-Side-Event-Responding-to-the-Global-Soil-Crisis

MAY 2012 25

Reports of meetings

H.E. Ambassador Gary Quinlan, Australian Am

bassador to the UN welcoming the delegates

Professor Alex McBratney, IUSS and University of Sydney

Dr Neil McKenzie, CSIRO

Communique of the 36th Annual Conference of the Soil Science Society of Nigeriaheld at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, EnuguState from 12 th to 16th March, 2012

The 36th Annual Conference of the Soil ScienceSociety of Nigeria was held at the University ofNigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, from 12 – 16 March2012. The theme of the Conference was “ClimateChange, Soil Management Alternatives and Sus-tainable Food Production”. The opening cere-mony was chaired by the Vice Chancellor,University of Nigeria Nsukka, Professor BarthoOkolo, who was represented by the Deputy ViceChancellor Academic, Professor I. U. Asuzu, whopresented the Vice-Chancellor ’s welcome ad-dress. The keynote address at the opening cere-mony was given by the Honourable Minister ofAgriculture and Rural Development, Dr AkinwumiAdesina who subsequently declared the Confer-ence open. Notable among the dignitaries that attended theConference were the Chairman, Senate committeeon agriculture, Distinguished Senator EmmanuelBwasha, who was represented by DistinguishedSenator Kaka and Professor Pedro Sanchez of theEarth Institute at Columbia University, WashingtonDC, USA. Invited papers were presented by Dr.David N. Sasseville of AgriGuardian, Professor UcheAmalu of University of Calabar, Professor Carol C.Mba of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Pro-fessor Pedro Sanchez of the Earth Institute at Co-lumbia University.

Over four hundred soil scientists and other environ-mentalists, farmers, policy makers, and students at-tended the Conference. Participants brainstormedon current challenges of Climate Change vis-a-vis soilmanagement strategies to promote sustainable foodproduction and Food Security. Over 250 papers inthe areas of soil survey, classification, evaluation andland use; soil fertility, chemistry and microbiology;soil physics, land degradation, soil and water re-sources management were presented. A field tripwas undertaken to Songhai Farms at Adani with astop over at a sand quarry site at Nkpologu, both inUzo-Uwani LGA of Enugu State.Arising from the deliberations at the plenary andtechnical sessions of the conference, as well as thefield trip, the following observations were made:1. The impacts of Climate Change on soil resources and

crop yields remain a serious threat to food securityin Nigeria. The devastating impact of gully erosionand desert encroachment on human settlementsand farm lands are clear evidences of the dangersahead. There is an urgent need for mitigation andadaptation measures to the negative impacts of Cli-mate Change. Soil Science Society of Nigeria com-mends Federal Government’s initiative inestablishing Climate Change desks in the Ministries.

2. The Agricultural Transformation Agenda of theFederal Government has potentials of reposition-ing Nigerian agriculture to meet the challenges ofFood Security which demands the active partici-pation of Soil Scientists in evolving soil manage-ment strategies.

3. The inadequacy of geo-referenced soil informa-tion constitutes a serious impediment to effectiveand sustainable land use management.

4. Nigeria’s soil resources are currently under severestress being intensively cultivated without ade-quate conservation and nutrient replacementmeasures, resulting in soil physical, chemical andbiological degradation; a situation likely toworsen by the phenomenon of Climate Change.

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5. There is national and global concern on soil envi-ronmental health due to non recognition of thepotentials of beneficial soil inhabiting organismsand non protection of biodiversity in the ecologi-cal system.

6. Crop production in Nigeria is very far from beingsustainable and yields are far below their poten-tials due mainly to intensive cropping on infertilefragile soils, micronutrient depletion, inappropri-ate soil management techniques and weak inputdelivery system.

7. The Soil Science Society of Nigeria commends theHonourable Minister of Agriculture and Rural De-velopment for recognizing the critical roles of soilscientists in developing appropriate soil maps andsoil management strategies that will drive theagricultural transformation agenda of the FederalGovernment of Nigeria.

8. The existing soil map of Nigeria produced at a re-connaissance (small) scale, has limitations for sus-tainable agricultural development andagro-technology transfer. The realization of theTransformation Agenda necessarily requires theinputs of soil scientists to achieve the set goals.The Soil Science Society of Nigeria also commendsthe Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural De-velopment for involving the Society in the imple-mentation of the National Soil Survey Project.

The Soil Science Society of Nigeria therefore resolvesas follows:1. To promote soil management and agro-technol-

ogy transfer that will successfully drive the agri-cultural transformation agenda, Government isrequested to expedite action on the actualizationof the proposed Nigerian Soil Information System(NSIS) as a component part of the African Soil In-formation System (AFSIS).

2. Urgent action is needed to arrest the enormousdestruction of land resources resulting from Cli-mate Change related land degradation such asgully erosion and desertification.

3. Government should consider as a matter of ur-gency the critical need to upgrade soil researchlaboratories in Research Institutes and Universitieswith state-of-the art equipment to facilitate re-search and capacity building for soil improvement.

4. Government should urgently consider the ap-proval of the Nigerian Soil Science Institute bill toholistically address the soil resources manage-ment problems of the country as well as manageits soil data base.

5. There is the need for pro-active actions on carbonsequestration and trading through research anddevelopment which can be achieved through ap-propriate use of soil organic matter and promo-tion of soil building organisms.

6. There is the need for timely and adequate provisionof relevant inputs such as organic and inorganic fer-tilizers, especially micronutrients, to ensure in-creased crop yields and sustainable soil productivity.

7. The society reiterates her call on Government to in-crease funding for research and outreaches on Cli-mate Change issues and facilitate collaborationbetween Government agencies like Federal Ministryof Environment, Nigerian Meteorological Agency(NIMET), Universities, Research and Extension Insti-tutes and National and International NGOs.

The Society immensely appreciates the support ofthe University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Federal Ministryof Agriculture and Rural Development, Universitiesand Research Institutes, National Program on FoodSecurity and Government Agencies and Private Or-ganizations for their contributions towards the suc-cessful hosting of the 36th Annual Conference.Dated this 15th day of March, 2012.

Professor V.O. Chude, FSSSN, PresidentProfessor J. A. Adediran, Secretary

28th Congress of the Polish Society of Soil Science (PSSS)Held from 5-10 September 2011 at the NicolausCopernicus University in Toruń.

During the opening ceremony hosted by the Rectorof the University the Honorary Member of the Pol-ish Society of Soil Science was made to Prof. NicolaSenesi, Prof. Jerzy Marcinek and Prof. Jan Gliński.After the opening ceremony plenary session lec-tures were presented by Prof. Nicola Senesi - Presi-dent of the European Confederation of Soil ScienceSocieties, Prof. Stephen Nortcliff – Past SecretaryGeneral of IUSS, Prof. Winfried Blum – Past Presi-dent of the European Confederation of Soil ScienceSocieties, Prof. Donald Gabriels, Prof. JerzyMarcinek and Prof. Jan Łabętowicz. Some 170 soil scientists from Poland and 20 from for-eign countries participated in the Congress with thetheme “Soils – Human – Environment”. Main topics ofthe conference were: soil genesis, classification andcartography, soil chemistry and physics, soil biology,

MAY 2012 27

degradation, conservation and reclamation of soils,use and management of soils. The Congress one-daythree scientific field excursions were held; one to ex-amine chosen soils of the Vistula Valley and theChełmno Morainic Plateau, second to examine soils ofthe Toruń Basin and the Inowrocław Plain and last con-cerned soils under the intensive agricultural use of theCuiavia and Pałuki regions. Also was organized two-day post-congress field excursion to examine youngglacial soil and landscapes in the Brodnica region.

At the General Assembly of the Polish Society of SoilScience delegates elected the new Board for the pe-riod 2011-2015:President - Prof. Zbigniew Zagórski Vice-President - Prof. Andrzej MocekVice-President - Associate Prof. Cezary KabałaSecretary - Prof. Halina SmalSecretary for Inter-national Relations - Prof. Józef ChojnickiTreasurer - Prof. Wojciech Owczarzak

Józef ChojnickiSecretary of PSSS for International Relations

Department of Soil Environment Sciences Faculty of Agriculture and Biology Warsaw University of Life Sciences02-776 Warszawa, 159/37 Nowoursynowska Street PolandTel. (+ 48 22) 59 326 16Fax: (+ 48 22) 59 326 02E-mail: jozef_chojnicki@sggw.pl

News From The Brazilian Soil Science Society www.sbcs.org.br

The Brazilian Soil Science Society (SBCS) is one of theoldest scientific societies in Brazil: it was establishedin 1947. In 2011, during the Brazilian Congress of SoilScience, a new Board of Directors (known as theCouncil) was elected. Since then the Society is set-ting up a modernization process in its structures andexternal relations through a renewed statute andnew by-laws. The Council, composed by 20 members,has met recently to discuss the agenda and planningfor 2012 and beyond. In the meeting it was decidedand reinforced that the Society should aim to: (a) be-come more influent in Brazilian environmental pub-lic policies, (b) reach leadership in public soilawareness in a continental-sized country like Braziland (c) interact with other scientific societies due tothe transdisciplinary nature of Soil Science. Similarly to the IUSS, the SBCS scientific activities areundertaken through four Divisions and their relatedCommissions. The administration is performed bythe Council, composed by a President, two Vice-Presidents, a Secretary-General, a Deputy-Secretary-General and a Treasurer, as well as by the directorsof the divisions and regional/state branches and twoPast-Presidents. Currently, Mr. G. S. de Farias, a soilscientist from the Agronomic Institute of ParanáState, is the President and Professors R. Cantarutti,R. Fernandes and E. Matiello (all of them from theFederal University of Viçosa, Minas Gerais State) are

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Secretary-General, Deputy-Secretary-General andTreasurer, respectively.Two of the long-lasting and important activities ofthe Society are (1) the promotion of various scien-tific events throughout the country (namely, theBrazilian Congress of Soil Science, the Symposium onSoil Education, the Soil Fertility and Biology Meet-ing, the Soil and Water Management and Conserva-tion Meeting, the Soil Classification and CorrelationMeeting; all of them take place every two years) and(2) the publication of the Brazilian Journal of Soil Sci-ence. At present, another important issue underwork is the organization of the 21st World Congressof Soil Science (Rio 2018), whose first arrangementswill be presented in the IUSS Inter-Congress Meet-ing next June in Jeju, Korea.

Gonçalo S. de Farias and Cristine C. Muggler

Report From The 5th Global Workshop On Digital Soil MappingSydney, 10-13 April 2012

I have the privilege to attend the 5th Global Work-shop on Digital Soil Mapping (DSM) held 10-13 April2012 in Sydney. The workshop started with Prof. AlexMcBratney as an MC to welcome us at the Univer-

sity of Sydney, followed by opening speeches fromProf. Jae Yang (President of IUSS), Prof. AlfredHartemnik (Secretary General of IUSS), Prof. JanisBoettinger (Chair of digital soil mapping workinggroup), Prof. Budiman Minasny (Chair of the Work-shop). An opening speech by Prof. Robert Hill high-lighted the importance of soil information in relationto global initiatives and issues. The keynote by LeeBelbin discussed Environmental data: a perspectivefrom the Atlas of living Australia, Dr. Jeff walker pre-sented High resolution soil moisture mapping usingvarious sensors from ground-based to satellite-based. In total there were 25 papers presented inthe first day. The day’s activities were finalised withan Aussie BBQ.

For me, the first day workshop is really impressive.Every presenter must deliver his/her presentation injust 5 minutes. Every 5 minutes, we saw new topic,each presenter has a different way of presentation.It was really a dynamic, and lively workshop. The ob-jective is to deliver only the essence of their work,while the details can be found in the accompaniedpaper.

The second day, 24 papers were presented in 5 ses-sions: Digital soil modelling, Digital mapping of soilclasses, Sampling and monitoring in DSM, and Cyberinfrastructure & expert system. The second day wasalso enriched by kenote presentation by Prof. Garry

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Participants of the Brazilian Soil Science Society Council meeting realized in February/March 2012.

Willgoose (The potential role of pedogenesis model-ing in digital soil mapping), Dr. David Clifford (The ef-fect of preferential sampling on sampling variance),and Bruce Simons (OneGeology: improving Access toGeoScience Globally). It was very enlightened to seepresentations from outside of the regular DSMcrowd. The second day we had a gala dinner at thebeautiful L’Aqua in Darling Harbour with entertain-ment by swing jazz musicians and also Alex.

The third day was a field excursion. Two busses ar-rived early at 6.30 am but not much people cameyet. Perhaps, last night’s dinner made people havinggood sleep. Somehow, all must weak up earlier.Hunter valley is area that we are going to visit. Thearea is one of the major wine production areas inAustralia. Dr. Damien Field, introduced us to the Aus-tralian landscape and soil. I really enjoyed travellingwhile comparing the Australian landscape with myhome town. We arrived in Hunter Valley after 2.5hour drive. We were informed about the history, soilvariability and wine quality before we visit field tosee selected soil profiles. As usual, hot discussionsand comments arose when soil scientists see a soilprofile. Nevertheless, the debate is ended wheneverybody were asked to test the wine. After that,everybody enjoyed their rest returning to Sydney.

At the last day of conference, 22 papers were pre-sented in 3 sessions: Operational DSM, Proximal, re-mote sensing and spectroscopy of soil, andGlobalSoiMap.net. Three keynote speeches weredelivered, Prof. Janis Boetinger presented The futureis now: operational digital soil mapping; Dr. Ian C.Lau presented Mapping surface mineralogy and soilproperties using hyperspectral imagery, and Dr. NeilMcKenzie presented the GlobalSoilMap.net project. After the last session, Janis as chair of the DSMworking group led a meeting to select the new vice-chair, and the next 6th DSM workshop. In that meet-ing, Mogens Greve was appointed as the newvice-chair. There were 5 countries who proposed tohost the next DSM workshop including Wageningen(the Netherlands), Quebec (Canada), Seoul (SouthKorea), Nanjing (China), and Bali (Indonesia). Eachproponent was asked to present their proposal in 3minutes and the workshop attendance vote for theirfavourites. The final votes tallied by the Presidentand the Secretary General of IUSS showed that Nan-jing in China was selected for the next global digitalsoil mapping workshop in 2014. During this session,there are also several awards given. Budiman Mi-nasny was voted for the Peter Burrough award forthe best idea in DSM for his paper entitled Mappingthe occurrence and thickness of soil horizon within

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It’s different down under

soil profile. The best poster was awarded to Imple-menting DSM in the Thai soil survey by Monjoon,Rossiter, Jetten and Udomsri. The best oral presenta-tion by student was awarded to Jenette Goodmanfrom Purdue University, US for her paper Applicationpredicting soil organic carbon using mixed concep-tual and geostatistical models in glaciated land-scapes. The best oral presentation was awarded toJulian Caudeville from INERIS, France for Spatialmodelling of human exposure to soil contamination.

For me, this workshop is a dynamic, and lively full ofproductive discussions. As a new comer in DSM, andas the first Indonesian research who involve in prac-ticing, it provides me with new ideas and new knowl-edge on how to apply this new technology topromote farmer’s prosperity for providing enoughfood, feed, fibre, and fuel while securing our soil re-sources. This workshop provided me with lots of op-portunities to meet, and talk to other worldresearchers, it enabled me to exchange ideas andpursue further collaboration by networking andpartnership. Thanks to the organizing committee inSydney for providing a wonderful workshop.

Yiyi Sulaeman

The XIX Venezuelan Congress of Soil ScienceCalabozo, 21-25 November 2011

Between the 21 and 25 of last November theVenezuelan Soil Science Society celebrated its XIXNational Soil Congress at the city of Calabozo, in themiddle of our central alluvial plains. We were ableto gather 160 attendants, with an important grouprepresenting the new generation of Soil Scientist.During those days 110 papers were presented,mostly as cartels, covering a range of subjects, butdominated by properties and processes and use andmanagement. Special emphasis was given to newbiofertilizers, conservation tillage and the need formore integral indicators to evaluate managementpractices on the soil properties. In addition we hada Forum including local farmers and researchers, oneSymposium to analyze the status of soil inventory,the existing soil laboratories and the production offertilizers. Finally we had two Conferences, one byan expert from Embrapa, Brazil, relating their expe-riences on the use and management of savannahs,

and the other on the Potential use of fosfogypsumfor our acid soils. An interesting field trip concludedthe Congress including the experiences on the useof Vertisols for 50 years under irrigated rice.

Several Conclusions and Recommendations arebeing sent to all our associates and to GovernmentalInstitutions with the hope to decide on actions toovercome our deficiencies.

Juan ComermaPresident SVCS

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Handbuch des Bodenschutzes – Bodenökologieund Bodenbelastung, Vorbeugende und ab-wehrende Schutzmaßnahmen. Edited by Hans-Peter Blume, Rainer Horn and Sören Thiele-Bruhn.Wiley-VCH, Hardcover, 757p., 2011ISBN 978-3-527-32297-8.This book has long been and still is a standard refer-ence dealing with all aspects of soil use and soil pro-tection. The fourth completely revised edition issubdivided into five sections. The first section dealswith natural soil properties and functions in thelight of soil conservation and protection for sustain-ing future society needs. In section two the varioustypes of stresses imposed on soils and their impactsare discussed beginning with physical threats likesealing, compaction, erosion, irrigation anddrainage followed by chemical aspects related tofertilization and contamination and finally problemsparticularly associated with urbanization (waste de-posits, gas contamination, modification of soil tem-perature). A brief chapter at the end of this section specificallytreats effects of global warming on soils. Sectionthree introduces the use of soil inventories (geo-graphical information systems, thematic maps, etc.)as a basis for soil protection and to develop sustain-able site specific management systems. Protectionstrategies encountering the various soil threatsthrough technical solutions, laws and regulationsare focused on in section four. Particularly the Ger-man Federal Soil Protection Act but also regulationsand guidelines applied in Switzerland, Austria andon the European level are outlined. Tools for thor-ough planning to ensure sustainable soil use and toprevent irreversible negative impacts are explainedin detail specifically for each soil threat. Finally, the fifths and last section discusses possibil-ities to restore natural soil functions by recultiva-tion, remediation, and renaturation of sealed,degraded, contaminated and drained soils. Thisbook is a very comprehensive reference on virtuallyany soil protection aspect and highly recommendednot only for soil scientists but every professionaland non professional involved with soils in one orthe other way.

World Soil Resources and Food Se-curity Edited by Rattan Lal, B.A.Stewart. Published September 13th2011 by CRC Press – 574 pages. Se-ries: Advances in Soil Science. ISBN-13: 978-1439844502. World Soil Resources and Food Se-curity takes an in-depth look at the

availability and status of soil resources in the con-text of the growing demands of an increasing worldpopulation and rising expectations of living stan-dards. This timely reference presents current infor-mation on the soil resources available for foodproduction. Presenting innovative strategies for soiland water management, it discusses how to main-tain or improve the world’s soil resources in order toincrease food production. With the majority of theworld’s 1.02 billion food-insecure people concen-trated in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, severalchapters focus on soil resources in these regions.Contributions from renowned scientists deal withtopics including: global food situations, world soil re-sources, soil resources of humid Asia and their acid-ification, soil resources of South Asia, properties andmanagement of vertisols, use of radioisotopic tech-niques in soil management, the potential of rain-fedagriculture in the semiarid tropics, the status of landdegradation, and nutrient balance in sub-SaharanAfrica. This volume is a useful resource for those in-terested in the state of the soils of the world in rela-tion to food security and environmental quality.

Best Management Practices for Saline and SodicTurfgrass Soils Assessment and Reclamation. ByRobert N. Carrow, Ronny R. Duncan. Published Sep-tember 12th 2011 by CRC Press – 480 pages. ISBN-13: 978-1439814741. A comprehensive, science-based approach to under-standing the various salinity stresses on turfgrass,landscape plants, and soils, this book covers thecauses, problems, and characteristics of saline andsodic sites. It discusses site assessments for eachtype of salinity stress, including laboratory and fieldmethods, and soil and water quality report interpre-tations. Presenting options for the development andimplementation of best management practice

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New Publications

(BMPs), it considers whole ecosystem site assess-ment for environmental issues such as soilquality/sustainability, salt disposal, and potential toaffect surface and ground waters.

Handbook of Molecular Micro-bial Ecology II: Metagenomics inDifferent Habitats, By Frans J. deBruijn. ISBN: 978-0-470-64719-6. Hard-cover. 640 pages. September2011, Wiley-Blackwell. OtherAvailable Formats: E-Book.

The Handbook of Molecular Microbial Ecology is thefirst comprehensive two-volume reference to coverunculturable microorganisms in a large variety ofhabitats, which could not previously have been ana-lyzed without metagenomic methodology. It featuresreview articles as well as a large number of case stud-ies, based largely on original publications and writ-ten by international experts. This second volume,Metagenomics in Different Habitats, covers such top-ics as: viral genomes, metagenomics studies in a va-riety of habitats (including marine environments andlakes, soil, and human and animal digestive tracts,other habitats, including those involving microbiomediversity in human saliva and functional intestinalmetagenomics; diversity of archaea in terrestrial hotsprings; and microbial communities living at the sur-face of building stones), biodegradation, biocatalystsand natural products. A special feature of this book isthe highlighting of the databases and computer pro-grams used in each study; they are listed along withtheir sites in order to facilitate the computer-assistedanalysis of the vast amount of data generated bymetagenomic studies. Such studies in a variety ofhabitats are described here, which present a largenumber of different system-dependent approachesin greatly differing habitats.

Handbook of Soil Sciences Re-source Management and Envi-ronmental Impacts, SecondEdition Edited by Pan MingHuang, Yuncong Li, Malcolm E.Sumner. CRC Press, 2011. 830pages. ISBN-13: 978-1439803073.

Handbook of Soil Sciences: Resource Managementand Environmental Impacts, Second Edition is thesecond of two volumes that form a comprehensivereference on the discipline of soil science. Com-

pletely revised and updated to reflect the currentstate of knowledge, this volume covers interfacial in-teractions between the physical, chemical, and bio-logical regimes within the soil; the factors thatcontrol the availability of plant nutrients and mi-croelements; interdisciplinary aspects of soil sci-ence, including salinity, sodicity, and soil erosion;and soil databases for assessing worldwide soil re-sources. Critical elements addressed in each sectioninclude: descriptions of concepts and theories, def-initions, approaches, methodologies, procedures,data in tabular and figure format, and extensive ref-erences.Handy Dictionary of Soil Science English-Polish &Polish-English. Charzynski P, Switoniak M. 2011.Nicolaus Copernicus University Press, Torun. ISBN978-83-231-2690-4. This dictionary is intended toappeal to a wide audience, not only to scientistsworking in the field of soil science and related disci-plines, but also to students of environmental andagriculture sciences. A rapid increase in knowledgehas brought many new terms and concepts to soilscience International cooperation and exchange ofscientific ideas require precise and unambiguouscommunication in English. The authors have devotedthemselves to compiling as complete a set of termsand phrases as possible, which complemented theprofessional language as a result of soil science de-velopment within over 30 years from the date of theprevious similar dictionary in Polish. For details:www.wydawnictwoumk.pl/autor.php?autor=Charzy%F1ski+Przemys%B3aw

Multiscales Geomechanics: FromSoil to Engineering Projects. ByPierre-Yves Hicher. January, 2012.Wiley-ISTE. ISBN: 978-1-84821-246-6. Hardcover. Price $195.00. This book addresses the latest is-sues in multiscale geomechanics.

Written by leading experts in the field as a tribute toJean Biarez (1927-2006), it can be of great use andinterest to researchers and engineers alike. A briefintroduction describes how a major school of soilmechanics came into being through the exemplaryteaching by one man. Biarez’s life-long work con-sisted of explaining the elementary mechanismsgoverning soil constituents in order to enhance un-derstanding of the underlying scientific laws whichcontrol the behavior of constructible sites and to in-corporate these scientific advancements into engi-

MAY 2012 33

neering practices. He innovated a multiscale ap-proach of passing from the discontinuous mediumformed by individual grains to an equivalent contin-uous medium. The first part of the book examinesthe behavior of soils at the level of their differentconstituents and at the level of their interaction. Be-havior is then treated at the scale of the soil sample.The second part deals with soil mechanics from thevantage point of the construction project. It high-lights Biarez’s insightful adoption of the Finite Ele-ment Codes and illustrates, through numerousconstruction examples, his methodology and ap-proach based on the general framework he con-structed for soil behavior, constantly enriched bycomparing in situ measurements with calculated re-sponses of geostructures.

Bio-Geo Interactions in Metal-Con-taminated Soils. Series: Soil Biol-ogy, Vol. 31. Kothe, Erika andVarma, Ajit (Eds). 2012, 2012, IX.Springer. ISBN: 978-3-642-23326-5. Hardcover, 423 pages. Price$209.00.

Metal contamination is an increasing ecological andeco-toxicological risk. Understanding the processesinvolved in metal mobilization, sorption and miner-alization in soils are key features for soil bioremedia-tion. Following an introduction to the physical,chemical and biological components of contaminatedsoils, various chapters address the interactions ofsoil, microorganisms, plants and the water phasenecessary to transfer metals into biological systems.These include topics such as potential hazards at min-ing sites; rare earth elements in biotic and abioticacidic systems; manganese redox reactions; biomin-eralisation, uranium in seepage water; metal-resist-ant streptomycetes; mycorrhiza in re-forestation;metal (hyper)accummulation in plants; microbialmetal uptake; and their potential for bioremediation.

Secretions and Exudates in Biolog-ical Systems. Series: Signaling andCommunication in Plants, Vol. 12.Vivanco, Jorge M. and Baluška,František (Eds.). 2012, 2012, VII.Springer. ISBN: 978-3-642-23046-2.Hardcover, 283 pages. Price$189.00. Secretions and emissions

in biological systems play important signaling roleswithin the organism but also in its communications

with the surrounding environment. This volumebrings together state-of-the-art information on therole of secretions and emissions in different organsand organisms ranging from flowers and roots ofplants to nematodes and human organs. The plantchapters relate information regarding the biochem-istry of flower volatiles and root exudates, and theirrole in attracting pollinators and soil microbial com-munities respectively. Microbial chapters explain thebiochemistry and ecology of quorum sensing andhow microbial communities highly co-adapted toplants can aid in bio-energy applications by degrad-ing ligno-cellulosic materials. Other chapters explainthe biology of secretions by nematodes, algae andhumans, among other organisms. This volume willbe a welcome addition to the literature, as no otherbook covers aspects related to biological secretionin such a holistic and integrative manner.

Sols et Environnement. Edited byMC Girard, C. Walter, JC Remy,J.Berthelin J. and JL Morel. DUNOD-F. Sciences Sup., Hardcover, 2nd Ed.,896 p., 36 chap. ISBN 978-2100549009. This manual is designed for Frenchspeaking students involved in Mas-

ters and Schools of Engineering (Environmental Sci-ences, Agricultural Sciences, Earth Sciences). It willalso be helpful for professionals involved with soilsas a reference for up-to-date knowledge on soilprocesses and policies. This fully revised secondedition integrates contributions from nearly 80 spe-cialists, carefully edited to ensure facility of com-prehension and homogeneous presentation. Allaspects of the environmental challenges of tomor-row are considered as soils are a key element of theenvironment: waste recycling, pollution by toxicsubstances, water resource, greenhouse gas fluxes,carbon sequestration, soil biodiversity. Soils havealso a societal role and this edition integrates newcontributions on viewpoints from sociology, lawand economics on the integration of the soil re-source in public decision. The book is divided into36 chapters within 6 sections: I. The soil as core el-ement of the biosphere; II. Soils and human activi-ties; III. Soil functions; IV. Soils and landmanagement; V. Soil: threats, prevention and re-habilitation; VI. Soil and social sciences. At the endof each chapter classroom-tested exercises are pro-vided and supplements are available online.

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Geografía de suelos de México (Soil Geography ofMexico). Vol. I / P. Krasilnikov, F.J. Jiménez-Nava, T.Reyna-Trujillo, N.E. García-Calderón (eds.). Mexico: UNAM, Facultad de Ciencias, 2011. xvi+462p. + 1 CD-ROM (12 cm). (In Spanish) ISBN: 978-607-02-2704-2. This book represents an extensive work on soil ge-ography of Mexico. The first volume includes twomajor parts: an introduction to soil geography andthe soil characteristics of 7 of the 17 physiographicregions of the country, the rest will be described ina second volume. This study is a joint effort of spe-cialists from the National Autonomous Universityof Mexico (UNAM), National Institute of Statisticsand Geography (INEGI), Postgraduate College andsome other Mexican and foreign universities andinstitutions, with totally 35 contributors to thebook. The publication is the first textbook and adesk reference edition on soil geography in Span-ish. Thus, it is recommended not only for special-ists from Mexico and neighboring countries, but forall the Spanish-speaking pedologists interested inthe rules of spatial distribution of soils on the ter-restrial surface. The contents of the 1st volume arethe following: 1) Spatial distribution of soils andfactors that determine it, 2) Parent material as a ge-ographical factor of distribution of soils, 3) Climaticfactor of soil distribution in Mexico, 4) Relief as afactor of soil distribution in Mexico, 5) Time as afactor of variation and geographical distribution ofsoils, 6) ecosystems as a factor of geographical dis-tribution of soils, 7) Changes in soil cover due toanthropogenic influence: a focus on tropical re-gions, 8) Methodology of soil geography, 9) Pedodi-versity: concept, evaluation and its use for globalanalysis of soils, 10) Mapping soil degradation inMexico: evolution and perspectives, 11) Soil map-ping and soil maps of Mexico, 12) Regional soil ge-ography: Baja California’s peninsula, 13) Regionalsoil geography: Sonora’s flatland, 14) Regional soilgeography: Sierra Madre Occidental, 15) Regionalsoil geography: the Great Planes of North America,16) Regional soil geography: Yucatan’s peninsula,17) Regional soil geography: Chiapas andGuatemala´s ridges, 18) Regional soil geography:Cordillera Centro Americana. For ordering information please contact: RosanelaAlvarez and Mercedes Perelló, Coordinación de Ser-vicios Editoriales de la Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM:editoriales@ciencias.unam.mxPrice: 30 USD

Amazon Forest and SavannaLands. -A guide to the climates,vegetation, landscapes and soilsof central Tropical South Amer-ica. Thomas T. Cochrane andThomas A. Cochrane. 2011. AMA-ZON. ISBN: 1452866376,

EAN13: 9781452866376. Full Colour, 190 pages. Price $49. This book provides an overview of the land re-sources of the Amazon in terms of its complex of cli-mates, landscapes, vegetation and soils. The maintext is subdivided into 3 sections supported by “Ref-erences to Studies” available free from the authors´web site: http://www.agteca.org.Section 1 is an updated sequel to the pioneeringdigital Land Systems study of the region carried bythe senior author and published by CIAT-EMBRAPA-CPAC in 1985 (ISBN 84-89206-39-2). The authorshave re-digitized that study as a Personal ComputerVersion with Database. Section 2 summarizes 3larger-scale land resource studies of critical areasof Amazonia; “The Geo-economic Region ofBrasilia”, “The Northern Amazon Region of Bolivia”and “The Western Amazon State of Rondonia,Brazil”. It starts with a discussion on the methodology de-veloped for those studies which was subsequentlyrefined and adopted by the ISSS (now IUSS) in de-veloping the SOTER methodology. Section 3 summa-rizes a series of novel findings from the studies. Themain text is supported with 44 pages of appendicescovering a series of practical technologies, includ-ing references to the authors’ equation to correctAl toxicity in mineral soils, their differential equa-tion to estimate fertilizer needs, and their new os-motic potential equation that has helped elucidate“solution flow through the soil-plant continuum”and “K deficiency in plants”. In synthesis, the bookin addition to providing an insight into the soils andecological complex of forest and savanna landsthroughout Amazonia, summarizes a series of tech-nologies of importance to the study of tropical landsand agriculture in general. It is considered that itwould be a valuable reference source for many soil,agronomic, plant and ecological scientists. The book is available from amazon.com

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Carbon Sequestration in Agricul-tural Soils. A Multidisciplinary Ap-proach to Innovative Methods.Piccolo, Alessandro (Ed.). 2012,2012, XIII. Springer. ISBN: 978-3-642-23384-5. Hardcover, 307pages. Price $129.00. This compilation of techniques,

methodologies and scientific data arises from a four-year Italian research project, which took place at uni-versity research stations in Turin, Piacenza, Naplesand Potenza. Soil Organic Matter (SOM) representsan active and essential pool of the total organic car-bon on the planet. Consequently, even smallchanges in this SOM carbon pool may have a signif-icant impact on the concentration of atmosphericCO2. Recent new understanding of the chemical na-ture of SOM indicates that innovative and sustain-able technologies may be applied to sequestercarbon in agricultural soils. Overall results of theproject have been applied to develop an innovativemodel for the prediction and description, both quan-titatively and qualitatively, of carbon sequestrationin agricultural soils. This book provides experts in dif-ferent areas of soil science with a complete pictureof the effects of new soil management methods andtheir potentials for practical application in farm man-agement.

Developments in Palygorskite-Se-piolite Research. A New Outlookon these Nanomaterials. Edited byArieh Singer, Seagram Center forSoil & Water Research, HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem, Rehovot,Israel, and Emilio Galan, Depart-ment of Crystallography, Mineral-

ogy and Agriculture Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry,University of Seville, Seville, Spain. July, 2011. Else-vier. ISBN: 978-0-444-53607-5. Hardcover, 520pages. Price $165.00. The aim of this comprehensive book is to present themost important results achieved in the research ofthe clay minerals palygorskite and sepiolite. Paly-gorskite and sepiolite have found to be useful in ahuge variety of industrial and medical applications.As a result, research on these clays has been inten-sified during the last two decades, and important ad-vances in their characterization have beenmade. The book contains contributions from distin-guished scientists in the field.

The State of the World’s Land and Water Resourcesfor Food and Agriculture. Managing Systems atRisk. by FAO, 2011. Routledge, Taylor and FrancisGroup. ISBN: 978-1-84971-326-9. Hardcover, 294pages. Price $160.00. ISBN: 978-1-84971-327-6. The State of Land and Water Resources (SOLAW) isFAO’s first flagship publication on the global statusof land and water resources. It is an ‘advocacy’ re-port, to be published every three to five years, andtargeted at senior level decision makers in agricul-ture as well as in other sectors. SOLAW is aimed atsensitizing its target audience on the status of landresources at global and regional levels and FAO’sviewpoint on appropriate recommendations for pol-icy formulation. SOLAW focuses on these key dimen-sions of analysis: (i) quantity, quality of land andwater resources, (ii) the rate of use and sustainablemanagement of these resources in the context ofrelevant socio-economic driving factors and con-cerns, including food security and poverty, and cli-mate change. This is the first time that a global,baseline status report on land and water resourceshas been made. It is based on several global spatialdatabases (e.g. land suitability for agriculture, landuse and management, land and water degradationand depletion) for which FAO is the world-recog-nized data source. Topical and emerging issues onland and water are dealt with in an integrated ratherthan sectoral manner. The implications of the statusand trends are used to advocate remedial interven-tions which are tailored to major farming systemswithin different geographic regions.

Mechanical Behaviour of SoilsUnder Environmentallly-InducedCyclic Loads. Series: CISM Interna-tional Centre for Mechanical Sci-ences, Vol. 534. di Prisco, ClaudioGiulio and Muir Wood, David.2012, 2012, X. SpringerWien NewYork. ISBN: 978-3-7091-1067-6.

Hardcover, 574 pages. Price $249.00. The book gives a comprehensive description of themechanical response of soils (granular and cohesivematerials) under cyclic loading. It provides the geot-echnical engineer with the theoretical and analyti-cal tools necessary for the evaluation of settlementsdeveloping with time under cyclic, environmentallyinduced loads (such as wave motion, wind actions,water table level variation) and their consequencesfor the serviceability and durability of structuressuch as the shallow or deep foundations used in off-

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shore engineering, caisson beakwaters, ballast andairport pavements and also to interpret monitoringdata, obtained from both natural and artificial slopesand earth embankments, for the purposes of risk as-sessment and mitigation.

Soil Enzymology in the Recyclingof Organic Wastes and Environ-mental Restoration. Series: Envi-ronmental Science andEngineering. Subseries: Environ-mental Science. Trasar-Cepeda, C.;Hernández, T.; García, C.; Rad, C.;González-Carcedo, S. (Eds.). 2012,

2012, XX. Springer. ISBN: 978-3-642-21161-4. Hard-cover, 350 pages. Price $179.00. Soil enzymes play a fundamental role in many soilprocesses such as the mineralization of organic mat-ter, the synthesis of humic substances, the degrada-tion of xenobiotics or the mechanisms involved inthe biocontrol of plant pathogens. Their direct linkwith soil microorganisms gives them a key role asbiomonitors of the evolution of soil quality or in themonitoring of the application of organic amend-ments to degraded soils. As a consequence of theimportance of soil enzymes on soil processes, thereis an increasing interest in their study, as well as inthe application of molecular techniques as diagnos-tic tools.

Explorations into a DynamicProcess-Oriented Soil Science. ByDouglas Frink, Worcester State Uni-versity, MA, USA. June, 2011. Else-vier. ISBN: 978-0-12-387821-2.Hardcover, 126 pages. Price$140.00. The paradigm and models of tradi-

tional soil science lack the ability to adequately ad-dress issues of soil dynamics, environmentalintegration, and change. Unexplainable research re-sults obtained from traditional soil studies appliedto non-traditional soil phenomena in physical geog-raphy, archaeology and ecology speak to the currentneed for soil science to move beyond descriptionand classification and into a dynamic process-ori-ented soil science capable of providing explanations.Soils do not behave as static inert geologic detritusaffected by climate, organisms, relief, and parentmaterial through time, but instead soils behave asself-organizing systems dynamically interrelatingwith their environment. Recognition of this dynamic

behaviour required a re-examination of how scien-tists in general think and in how modern soil sciencespecifically evolved its basic paradigms and models.This book examines the dynamics of soil organic car-bon and demonstrates the self-organizing nature ofsoil through time as soil responds to a wide range ofenvironmental and human perturbations.

Formation and Properties of Clay-Polymer Complexes. By B.K.G.Theng, Landcare Research, Palmer-ston North, New Zealand. April,2012. Elsevier. ISBN: 978-0-444-53354-8. Hardcover, 440 pages.Price $170.00. This book provides a comprehen-

sive account of the reactions between clay mineralsand organic polymers. The book opens with a discus-sion of the structures of common clay minerals, clayscolloid chemistry, and the behaviour of organic poly-mers at clay surfaces. This is followed by a systematictreatment of complex formation between clay min-erals and various classes of synthetic and naturallyoccurring polymers, a description of the propertiesof the resulting complexes and, wherever appropri-ate, their practical applications. The book will have anew separate chapter on clay-polymer nanocompos-ites. Each chapter is written as a self-contained re-view paper, giving a list of reference to the originalliterature.

Soil-Subsurface Change: ChemicalPollutant Impacts. By BrunoYaron, Ishai Dror, BrianBerkowitz. Weizmann Institute ofScience, Rehovot, Israel. April2012. Springer. ISBN: 978-3-642-24386-8. Hard cover 366 pages.Price $209.00.

While the soil-subsurface system has in many casesbeen affected by human impact, the effects ofchemical contaminants on the actual matrix andproperties have been largely neglected. The majorfocus of the book is on changes to the soil-subsur-face matrix and properties caused by chemical pol-lution. By integrating results available in theliterature, we observe that chemical pollutants maylead to the irreversible formation of a new soil-sub-surface regime characterized by a matrix and prop-erties different than those of the natural regime. Incontrast to the geological time scales dictating nat-ural changes to the matrix and properties of the

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soil-subsurface system, the time scale associatedwith chemical pollutant-induced changes is farshorter and extends over a “human lifetime scale.”The numerous examples presented in the book con-firm that chemical contamination should be consid-ered as an additional factor in the formation of acontemporary soil-subsurface regime that is differ-ent than that of the natural system. This book com-bines soil science, earth science, andenvironmental geochemistry, providing compre-hensive background information for specialists in-terested in chemical-induced changes in thesoil-subsurface system.

Upper Permian Paleosols: Fea-tures, Processes, Еnvironment,by S.A. Inozemtsev, V.O. Targulian.Moscow – 2010. GEOS. The Upper Permian paleosolscompiling three pedocomplexeswere described and studied ingeological outcrops of red-col-

ored Late Permian sedimentary rocks in the riverSukhona valley (Russian Plain). All individual pale-osols were assessed as monogenetic and repeat-edly reproduced soil bodies within thepedocomplexes. They were formed due to regularalternation of cycles of sedimentation and hydro-morphic pedogenesis on the low alluvial plain. Thedetail macro-meso-micro- and submicro-morpho-logical as well as chemical and particle size analy-ses were implemented for each profile of paleosolsin pedocomplexes. On this empirical base the re-construction of paleopedogenesis for each pale-osols as well as for the whole pedocomplexes wereimplemented. The monogenetic profiles of pale-osols were horizonated by similar combinations ofthe main specific pedogenic processes: stagnation,eluviation-illuviation of iron, carbonates andsometimes clays, structural transformation of cam-bic horizons, sometimes slickenside and humusformation. The whole paleopedcomplexes wereformed according to fluvial accretion model of pe-dogenesis. The paleogeographic reconstructionproduced from these paleopedological data is thelow alluvial plain with savanna–like vegetation andalternation of semiarid and semihumid hot cli-mate. The book is addressed to scientists in soilscience, paleopedology, paleogeography, paleon-tology and geology.

Biofertilisers and Organic Fertilis-ers — a sourcebook-cum-directory.By HLS Tandon 2011. pp. 156.ISBN: 81-85116- 63-6.Fertiliser De-velopment and Consultation Or-ganisation, 204-204A BhanotCorner, 1-2 Pamposh Enclave NewDelhi 110 048 (India), Price/ copy

US$ 60 (inclusive of airmail delivery). www.tandon-tech.net, Contact: fdco@airtelmail.in. Biofertilisers and organic fertilizers are two of themost important components of integrated nutrientmanagement (INM). Biofertilisers mainly consist ofliving microbial inoculants which either make net ad-ditions to the nutrient supplies (as in case of N fixa-tion) or as solubiliser/mobilize of the nutrientsalready present in the soil (as in case of P/K-solubilis-ers, mycorrhiza etc). The aim of this publication is (i)to create greater awareness about these vital farminputs which are now key components of INM(ii) toprovide the contact details of producers and prod-ucts available to the end users farmers and (iii) tostress that biofertilisers and organic fertilizers have arole to play in the entire land under agriculture/hor-ticulture and their use is by no means confined to or-ganic farming/production systems. Apart from anoverview chapter, this book deals with the (ii) statusof production of biofertilisers and organic fertilizers(ii)quality standards (iii) a directly of producers andtechnology providers of producers followed by a list-ing of research and development resources, ad-dresses of certification agencies for organicproduction, a detailed index followed by a short func-tional glossary of common terminology.

Biofertiliser Handbook : research-production-application. By P.Bhattacharyya and HLS Tandon2012. pp. 190 + x. ISBN: 81-85116-64-4. Fertiliser Development andConsultation Organisation, 204-204A Bhanot Corner, 1-2 PamposhEnclave New Delhi 110 048 (India),

Price/ copy US$ 60 (inclusive of airmail delivery).www.tandontech.net, Contact: fdco@airtelmail.in.This Handbook provides a research-based, practi-cally useful account of biofertilisers (nutrient relatedbio-inoculants) from production to practical applica-tion. This handbook covers all major N-fixers (Rhizo-bium, Azotobacter, Azospirillum, Acetobacter, Bluegreen algae, Azolla), P-solubilising biofertilisers andnutrient mobilisers such at Mycorrhiza. Some aspects

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of the versatile fungus Trichoderma are also covered.The various aspects dealt with in this handbook are:Biofertilisers – their classification, characteristics,role and mode of action; product characteristics,crop specificity, advantage and limitations; impact ofbiofertilisers on crops, soils and economics; biofer-tiliser production technology; packaging, labelling,handling and storage of biofertilisers; biofertiliserproduction and consumption; biofertiliser promotionand marketing; biofertiliser application and practicalrecommendations; quality standards and methods ofanalysis ; R&D efforts and resources; references andadditional reading material; and finally a test bywhich the readers can test their biofertiliser knowl-edge (self test).The text is supported by a number oftables, diagrams, pictures and appendices.This hand-book written in simple English will meet the needs ofa diverse readership including the producers ofbiofertilisers, entrepreneurs planning to enter thesefields, microbiologists, students and teachers in col-leges , those practicing organic farming, R&D cen-ters, persons interested in environmental aspects andeco-friendly technologies, technology transfer cen-ters , independent consultants/farm advisors, andbiofertiliser quality assessment laboratories.

Soil Engineering. Series: Soil Biology,Vol. 20. Dedousis, Athanasios P.;Bartzanas, Thomas (Eds.). 1st Edi-tion., 2010, XI. Springer. ISBN: 978-3-642-03680-4. Hardcover, 230pages. Price $199.00. This Soil Biology volume will updatereaders on several cutting-edge as-

pects of sustainable soil engineering including topicssuch as: soil compaction, soil density increases, soildisturbance and soil fragmentation; soil tillage ma-chineries and optimization of tillage tools; soil traf-fic and traction, effects of heavy agriculturalmachines, the use of robotics in agriculture and con-trolled traffic farming; mechanical weed control, thecharacterization of soil variability and the recyclingof compost and biosolids in agricultural soils.

Endospore-forming Soil Bacteria.Series: Soil Biology, Vol. 27. Logan,Niall A.; De Vos, Paul (Eds.). 1st Edi-tion., 2011, XV. Springer. ISBN: 978-3-642-19576-1. Hardcover, 347pages. Price $209.00. Aerobic endospore-forming bacte-ria are found in soils of all kinds,

ranging from acid to alkaline, hot to cold, and fer-tile to desert. It is well known that endospores con-fer special properties upon their owners and playdominant parts in their life cycles and dispersal, andmuch has been written about the spores, genetics,and economic importance of these organisms.Much has also been written about soil ecology, butthere is a relative dearth of literature that brings to-gether different aspects of the behaviour and char-acters of endospore-formers with theircontributions to soil ecosystems. This Soil Biologyvolume fills that gap. Following chapters that de-scribe the current classification of these organisms,that review methods for their detection and forstudying their life cycles in soils, and that examinetheir dispersal, other chapters show that they areactive and dynamic members of soil floras that in-teract widely with other soil inhabitants, with rolesin nitrogen fixation, denitrification, and soil reme-diation.

Soil Health and Climate Change.Series: Soil Biology, Vol. 29. Singh,Bhupinder Pal; Cowie, Annette L.;Chan, K. Yin (Eds.). 1st Edition.,2011, X. Springer. ISBN: 978-3-642-20255-1. Hardcover, 403 pages.Price $209.00. Soil Health and Climate Change

presents a comprehensive overview of the conceptof soil health, including the significance of key soilattributes and management of soil health in con-ventional and emerging land use systems in thecontext of climate change. Starting with a reviewof the physical, chemical and biological indicatorsof soil health and their significance for monitoringthe impacts of climate change, this book then fo-cuses on describing the role of soil structure, pH,organic matter, nitrogen, respiration and biota insustaining the basic functions of soil ecosystems,and their anticipated responses to climate change.Further topics include the management of crop-ping, pastoral, and forestry systems, and rehabili-tated mine sites, with a focus on mitigation of andadaptation to climate change impacts. Finally, theopportunities and potential risks of organic farm-ing, biochar and bioenergy systems, and their abil-ity to sustain and even enhance soil health, arediscussed.

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Organic Farming, Pest Control andRemediation of Soil Pollutants. Se-ries: Sustainable Agriculture Reviews.Lichtfouse, Eric (Ed.). 2010, X.Springer. ISBN: 978-1-4020-9653-2.Hardcover, 418 pages. Price $199.00. Sustainable agriculture is a rapidlygrowing field aiming at producing

food and energy in a sustainable way for humans andtheir children. Sustainable agriculture is a disciplinethat addresses current issues such as climate change,increasing food and fuel prices, poor-nation starva-tion, rich-nation obesity, water pollution, soil erosion,fertility loss, pest control, and biodiversity depletion.Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions are pro-posed based on integrated knowledge from sciencesas diverse as agronomy, soil science, molecular biol-ogy, chemistry, toxicology, ecology, economy, and so-cial sciences. Indeed, sustainable agriculture deciphermechanisms of processes that occur from the molec-ular level to the farming system to the global level attime scales ranging from seconds to centuries. Forthat, scientists use the system approach that involvesstudying components and interactions of a whole sys-tem to address scientific, economic and social issues.In that respect, sustainable agriculture is not a classi-cal, narrow science. Instead of solving problems usingthe classical painkiller approach that treats only neg-ative impacts, sustainable agriculture treats problemsources. Because most actual society issues are nowintertwined, global, and fast-developing, sustainableagriculture will bring solutions to build a safer world.This book series gathers review articles that analyzecurrent agricultural issues and knowledge, then pro-pose alternative solutions. It will therefore help all sci-entists, decision-makers, professors, farmers andpoliticians who wish to build a safe agriculture, en-ergy and food system for future generations.

Lessons learned from Long-termSoil Fertility Management Experi-ments in Africa. Bationo, A.;Waswa, B.; Kihara, J.; Adolwa, I.;Vanlauwe, B.; Saidou, K. (Eds.).2012, 2012, VI. Springer. ISBN: 978-94-007-2937-7. Hardcover, 210pages. Price $189.00.

This book elucidates the importance of long-term ex-periments in revealing evidence of soil fertility declinein Africa. An evaluation of experiences from on-goinglong-term experiments is given in broad detail. Thefirst chapter explains the paradigm shift in soil fertil-

ity management then provides justification for long-term experiments before illuminating experiencesfrom long-term experiments in East, West and South-ern Africa. The second, sixth, eighth and ninth chap-ters give an in-depth account of crop managementpractices and soil fertility interventions in long-termtrials within specific agro-ecological zones in WestAfrica. The rest of the chapters (chapter three, four,five and seven) address crop management, tillagepractices and, organic and inorganic fertilizer applica-tions in the context of long-term experiments in spe-cific agro-ecological zones in East Africa.

Improving Soil Fertility Recommen-dations in Africa using the DecisionSupport System for AgrotechnologyTransfer (DSSAT). Kihara, J.; Fa-tondji, D.; Jones, J.W.; Hoogenboom,G.; Tabo, R.; Bationo, A. (Eds.). 2012,2012, VI. Springer. ISBN: 978-94-007-2959-9. Hardcover, 184 pages.

Price $209.00. The book gives a detailed description of the applicationof DSSAT in simulating crop and soil processes withinvarious Agro-ecological zones in Africa. The book, anoutput of a series of 3 workshops, provides examples ofthe application of DSSAT models to simulate nitrogenapplications, soil and water conservation practices in-cluding effects of zai technology, phosphorus andmaize productivity, generation of genetic coefficients,long-term soil fertility management technologies in thedrylands, microdosing, optimization of nitrogen xgermplasms x water, spatial analysis of water and nutri-ent use efficiencies and, tradeoff analysis. The mini-mum dataset requirements for DSSAT is discussed. Thisbook arises from attempts to address the limited useof models in decision support by African agricultural(both soil scientist and agronomists) scientists.

Theory and Practice of Soil LossControl in Eastern China. Zhang,J.C., DeAngelis, D.L., Zhuang, J.Y. 1stEdition., 2011, XIV. Springer. ISBN:978-1-4419-9678-7. Hardcover, 294pages. Price $179.00.In recent decades in eastern Chinathere has been great progress to-

wards ecological restoration through reforestation ofbare lands and steeply sloping cultivated land sufferingfrom serious erosion. This book introduces several soilloss control models suitable for land use strategiesalong with many techniques of reforestation with a

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focus on improving the living standards of farmers.These strategies include “local recycling,” which com-bines the use of trees (fruit trees, herb, bamboo),crops for feeding livestock, use of animal wastes forbiogas and fertilizer, fish production, and a “large scalerecycling,” fostering the interaction between the coun-tryside of the mountainous areas and the urban areasin the lower elevations. The “local recycling” can alle-viate poverty for farmers and provide fuel materialthat replaces dependence on twigs and tree litter,which in turn protects the reforested young trees frombeing harmed. The “large scale recycling” creates amore harmonious society and promotes the commonhealth and wealth of the countryside and the city. Thisbook presents the most comprehensive and successfulmodels of reforestation in eastern China.

Molecular Environmental Soil Science at the Interfaces in theEarth’s Critical Zone. Xu, Jian-Ming;Huang, Pan Ming (Eds.). Jointly pub-lished with Zhejiang UniversityPress. 1st Edition., 2010. Springer.ISBN: 978-3-642-05296-5. Hard-cover, 364 pages. Price $409.00.

“Molecular Environmental Soil Science at the Inter-faces in the Earth’s Critical Zone” presents contribu-tions from the 1st International Symposium ofMolecular Environmental Soil Science at the Inter-faces in the Earth’s Critical Zone held in Hangzhou,China. It introduces new ideas, findings, methods,and experience on above new and emerging subjectareas. A broad range of topics are covered: the roleof mineral colloids in carbon turnover and seques-tration and the impact on climate change, biogeo-chemical interfacial reactions and dynamics of vitaland toxic elements, ecotoxicology of anthropogenicorganics, environmental nanoparticles and their im-pacts, and ecosystem health. The book will be a valu-able reference for researchers in soil chemistry,environmental chemistry, mineralogy, microbiology,ecology, ecotoxicology, and physics.

Fighting Poverty in Sub-SaharanAfrica: The Multiple Roles ofLegumes in Integrated Soil FertilityManagement. Bationo, A.; Waswa,B.; Okeyo, J.M.; Maina, F.; Kihara, J.;Mokwunye, U. (Eds.). 1st Edition.,2011, VIII. Springer. ISBN: 978-94-007-1535-6. Hardcover, 246 pages.

Price $209.00.

Inclusion of legumes in cropping systems can play anincreasingly important role to maintain soil fertilityand sustain crop production. Legumes are an impor-tant source of nutrition to both humans and live-stock by providing the much needed protein,minerals, fiber and vitamins. The sale of legumesseed, leaves and fiber generates income for the mar-ginalized communities especially women in the dry-land areas. Cultivation of legumes is essential for theregeneration of nutrient-deficient soils. Legumes canbe incorporated into cropping systems as green ma-nure, intercropped or rotated with cereals and asleguminous shrubs in improved fallow systems. Bybiologically fixing nitrogen (BNF) in the soil, legumesprovide a relatively low-cost method of replacingotherwise expensive inorganic nitrogen in the soil.Legumes also improve other soil physical properties,provide ground cover and reduce soil erosion, in-crease soil organic matter, cation exchange capacity,microbial activity and lowers soil temperature andsuppress weeds and pests. All these beneficial ef-fects result in enhanced soil fertility and boosts sub-sequent cereal crop yields. Legumes therefore playan important role of improving the livelihoods ofsmallholder farmers around the world. Despite the above benefits, production of legumesin SSA is hampered by a number of constraints. Mostsoils in SSA are deficient in key nutrients especiallyphosphorus that is essential for proper legume es-tablishment. Other limitations include low soil pH,high salinity, drought and flooding. Legume produc-tion is also hindered by new diseases, pests, andweeds, which farmers need to learn how to controlif the full benefits of legumes are to be gained. Be-yond the abiotic factors are issues of access to in-puts (improved seed and fertilizers), markets andaccess to relevant production information. This bookpresents a synthesis of research work on legumesand draws attention to the importance of legumesin integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) andpoverty alleviation in SSA.

Biomanagement of Metal-Contam-inated Soils. Series: EnvironmentalPollution, Vol. 20. Khan, M.S.; Zaidi,A.; Goel, R.; Musarrat, J. (Eds.). 1stEdition., 2011, XVIII. Springer. ISBN:978-94-007-1913-2. Hardcover, 515pages. Price $179.00. Heavy-metal contamination is one of

the world’s major environmental problems, posing sig-nificant risks to agro-ecosystems. However, conven-

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tional technologies for metal-contaminated soil reme-diation have often been expensive and disruptive.This book provides comprehensive, state-of-the-artcoverage of the natural, sustainable alternatives thatuse a wide range of biological materials in the re-moval/detoxification of heavy metals, consequentlyleading to the improvement of crops in these soils.Novel, environmentally friendly and inexpensive solu-tions are presented based on a sound understandingof metal contamination and the roles of plants and mi-crobes in the management of these toxic soils. Written by more than forty worldwide experts drawingon their wealth of experience in this field, the bookprovides not only the necessary scientific backgroundbut also addresses the challenging questions that re-quire special attention in order to better understandmetal toxicity in soils and its management throughbioremediation.

Contaminated Urban Soils. Series:Environmental Pollution, Vol. 18.Meuser, Helmut. 1st Edition., 2010,XIX. Springer. ISBN: 978-90-481-9327-1. Hardcover, 318 pages. Price$129.00. This book gives a current overviewof all facets of urban soils. Different

urban land-use types in a number of examples world-wide are introduced. Many examples in differentcountries are provided in order to illustrate the situ-ation in detail. The contaminant sources of urbansoils (e.g., dust deposition, contamination alongroadsides, contamination of floodplains, applicationof wastewater, anthropogenic deposits) are compre-hensively presented. For practical application pur-poses a key with which to identify technogenicmaterials during field work is presented. Features likereductomorphic conditions in landfill soils, acidifica-tion of coal mining heaps and the impact of physicalcharacteristics such as sealing are taken into consid-eration in the context of the contamination problem.The mobility of contaminants in the soils under con-sideration is introduced and discussed. The contentof the book, however, is not limited to the descrip-tion of contaminated urban soils. Different methodsof assessment (classification, functional assessment,assessment focused on pathways with reference tostandardized exposure scenarios) are introduced. Fi-nally, quality standards for contaminated land in anumber of countries are listed, compared and dis-cussed. The book links up the contamination prob-lem of urban soils with geographical aspects such as

the historical development of city growth, theprocess of urbanization and the urban-to-rural gradi-ents. Accordingly, the reader will be able to under-stand the specific problems of contaminated urbansoils and will find sensible approaches to assessment.

Dynamics and Bioavailability ofHeavy Metals in the Rootzone. H.Magdi Selim (Ed.). Published byCRC Press. Taylor and Francis.ISBN: 978-1-43-982622-5. Hard-cover, 313 pages. Price $129.95.Concerns regarding heavy metalcontamination in terrestrial ecosys-

tems have prompted increasing efforts on limitingtheir bioavailability in the root zone. The complexityof the hydrologic system gives rise to the need for un-derstanding the fate and transport of trace elementsin the soil-water-plant environment. “Dynamics andBioavailability of Heavy Metals in the Rootzone” pro-vides a multidisciplinary approach with emphasis ongeohydrology, plant and soil science, and environ-mental chemistry. The primary focus of this book ison different approaches that describe the dynamicsof heavy metals in the soil system. These approachesare key to providing direct information on the concen-tration of heavy metals and hence on their transport,toxicity, and bioavailability. The book includes chap-ters covering equilibrium and kinetic models of heavymetal interactions as well as non-equilibrium trans-port models. It also discusses chemical processes con-trolling soil solution concentrations and modeling ofheavy metals adsorption. Addressing the biologicalcomponent of heavy metal dynamics, this work exam-ines rhizosphere microorganisms and phytoremedia-tion. Colloid-associated transport, which can result ingroundwater contamination, is discussed in relationto reclaimed mine sites. The authors also present anoverview of recent advancements in the biogeochem-istry of trace elements and their environmental impli-cations. Additional chapters include examination ofvarious natural environments including runoff watersat the watershed scale, heavy metal transformationin wetlands, dynamics of trace metals in frequentlyflooded soils, and effects on crops in biosolid-amended soils. Reliable assessment of potential risksresulting from the transport of trace elements in thesoil environment requires the examination of complexchemical and biological interactions due to the het-erogeneous nature of soils. This text describes thecurrent state of the art in this field and explores inno-vative experimental and theoretical/modeling ap-

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proaches that will enhance this knowledge. The bookprovides a coherent presentation of recent advancesin techniques, modeling, and dynamics and bioavail-ability of heavy metals in the root zone.

Clean Soil and Safe Water. Series:NATO Science for Peace and Secu-rity. Series C: Environmental Secu-rity. Quercia, Francesca F.;Vidojevic, Dragana (Eds.). 2012,2012, XVII. Springer. ISBN: 978-94-007-2239-2. Hardcover, 299 pages.Price $229.00. ISBN: 978-94-007-

2242-2. Softcover, 299 pages. Price $119.00. This book addresses questions of relevance to govern-ments and industry in many countries around theworld, in particular concerning the link between con-taminated-land-management programs and the pro-tection of drinking water resources and the potentialeffects of climate changes on the availability of thesesame resources. On the “problem” side, it reports andanalyzes methodologies and experiences in monitoringand characterization of drinking water resources (atbasin, country and continental scales), pollution pre-vention, assessment of background quality and of im-pacts on safety and public health from land and watercontamination and impacts of climate change. On the“solution” side, the book presents results from nationalcleanup programs, recent advances in research intogroundwater and soil remediation techniques, treat-ment technologies, research needs and informationsources, land and wastewater management ap-proaches aimed at the protection of drinking water.

Organic Fertilisation, Soil Qualityand Human Health. Series: Sustain-able Agriculture Reviews, Vol. 9.Lichtfouse, Eric (Ed.). 2012, 2012,XII. Springer. ISBN: 978-94-007-4112-6. Hardcover, 372 pages.Price $209.00. Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly

growing field aiming at producing food and energy ina sustainable way for humans and their children. Sus-tainable agriculture is a discipline that addresses cur-rent issues such as climate change, increasing foodand fuel prices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nationobesity, water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss,pest control, and biodiversity depletion. Novel, envi-ronmentally-friendly solutions are proposed basedon integrated knowledge from sciences as diverse asagronomy, soil science, molecular biology, chemistry,

toxicology, ecology, economy, and social sciences. In-deed, sustainable agriculture decipher mechanismsof processes that occur from the molecular level tothe farming system to the global level at time scalesranging from seconds to centuries. For that, scien-tists use the system approach that involves studyingcomponents and interactions of a whole system toaddress scientific, economic and social issues. In thatrespect, sustainable agriculture is not a classical, nar-row science. Instead of solving problems using theclassical painkiller approach that treats only negativeimpacts, sustainable agriculture treats problemsources. Because most actual society issues are nowintertwined, global, and fast-developing, sustainableagriculture will bring solutions to build a safer world.This book series gathers review articles that analyzecurrent agricultural issues and knowledge, then pro-pose alternative solutions. It will therefore help allscientists, decision-makers, professors, farmers andpoliticians who wish to build a safe agriculture, en-ergy and food system for future generations.

Genetic Engineering, Biofertilisa-tion, Soil Quality and Organic Farm-ing. Series: Sustainable AgricultureReviews. Lichtfouse, Eric (Ed.). 1stEdition, 2010, VI. Springer. ISBN:978-90-481-8740-9. Hardcover, 390pages. Price $209.00. Sustainable agriculture is a rapidly

growing field aiming at producing food and energy in asustainable way for humans and their children. Sustain-able agriculture is a discipline that addresses currentissues such as climate change, increasing food and fuelprices, poor-nation starvation, rich-nation obesity,water pollution, soil erosion, fertility loss, pest control,and biodiversity depletion. Novel, environmentally-friendly solutions are proposed based on integratedknowledge from sciences as diverse as agronomy, soilscience, molecular biology, chemistry, toxicology, ecol-ogy, economy, and social sciences. Indeed, sustainableagriculture decipher mechanisms of processes thatoccur from the molecular level to the farming system tothe global level at time scales ranging from seconds tocenturies. For that, scientists use the system approachthat involves studying components and interactions ofa whole system to address scientific, economic and so-cial issues. In that respect, sustainable agriculture is nota classical, narrow science. Instead of solving problemsusing the classical painkiller approach that treats onlynegative impacts, sustainable agriculture treats prob-lem sources. Because most actual society issues are

MAY 2012 43

now intertwined, global, and fast-developing, sustain-able agriculture will bring solutions to build a saferworld. This book series gathers review articles that an-alyze current agricultural issues and knowledge, thenpropose alternative solutions. It will therefore help allscientists, decision-makers, professors, farmers andpoliticians who wish to build a safe agriculture, energyand food system for future generations.

Environmental Soil Propertiesand Behaviour. By Raymond N. Yong,Masashi Nakano, Roland Pusch. Pub-lished by CRC Press. Taylor and Fran-cis. ISBN: 978-1-43-984529-5.Hardcover, 455 pages. Price $119.95. Environmental Soil Properties andBehaviour examines changes in soil

properties and behaviour caused by short- and long-term stresses from anthropogenic activities and envi-ronmental forces. Introducing new concepts of soilbehaviour, soil maturation, and soil functionality, it in-tegrates soil physics, soil chemistry, and soil mechan-ics as vital factors in soil engineering. The bookfocuses on environmental soil behaviour, with partic-ular attention to two main inter-related groups ofsoil–environment issues. The first is the use of soil asan environmental tool for management and contain-ment of toxic and hazardous waste materials. The sec-ond is the impact of ageing and weathering processesand soil contamination on the properties and behav-iour of soils, especially those used in geotechnical andgeoenvironmental engineering projects. To determineshort- and long-term soil quality and soil functionality,the authors emphasize the need to be aware of thenature of the stressors involved as well as the kindsof soil-changing processes that are evoked. This booktakes a first step toward a much-needed transdiscipli-nary effort to develop a broader and deeper under-standing of what happens to soil and how we candetermine and quantify the effect of biogeochemicalprocesses. It offers a timely resource for the study ofsoil properties and behaviours, effects of environmen-tal changes, and remediation of contaminated soil.

Soil Heavy Metals. Series: Soil Bi-ology, Vol. 19. Sherameti, Irena;Varma, Ajit (Eds.). 1st Edition,2010, XVIII. Springer. ISBN: 978-3-642-02435-1. Hardcover, 492pages. Price $229.00. Human activities have dramati-cally changed the composition

and organisation of soils. Industrial and urban wastes,agricultural application and also mining activities re-sulted in an increased concentration of heavy metalsin soils. How plants and soil microorganisms copewith this situation and the sophisticated techniquesdeveloped for survival in contaminated soils is dis-cussed in this volume. The topics presented include:the general role of heavy metals in biological soil sys-tems; the relation of inorganic and organic pollutions;heavy metal, salt tolerance and combined effects withsalinity; effects on abuscular mycorrhizal and onsaprophytic soil fungi; heavy metal resistance bystreptomycetes; trace element determination of envi-ronmental samples; the use of microbiological com-munities as indicators; phytostabilization of leadpolluted sites by native plants; effects of soil earth-worms on removal of heavy metals and the remedia-tion of heavy metal contaminated tropical land.

Plant Nutrition and Soil FertilityManual. Second Edition. By J. Ben-ton Jones, Jr. Published by CRCPress. Taylor and Francis. ISBN:978-1-43-981609-7. Softcover, 304pages. Price $79.95. As soil and crop management pro-cedures have become more com-

plex, County Agricultural Agents, farm advisors,consultants, and fertilizer and chemical dealers havehad to specialize in some aspect of soil fertility andcrop nutrition management procedures, limitingtheir ability to provide a range of advice and serv-ices. Most farmers and growers can no longer turnto just one source for the information and instruc-tion needed to achieve their production goals. Withover 70 percent new material, the second edition ofthe Plant Nutrition and Soil Fertility Manual dis-cusses the principles determining how plants growand the elements essential for successful crop pro-duction, with a focus on the principles of soil fertil-ity and plant nutrition. The book covers physical andchemical properties of soil, chemical and organic fer-tilizers, soil acidity and alkalinity, liming and limingmaterials, and micronutrients essential to plantgrowth. It also describes elements toxic to plants,soil testing, and plant analysis.

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IUSS Honorary members

Year Member Country Year Member Country

1924 L. Cayeux † France K. Glinka † USSR Jos. Kopecky † Czechoslovakia E. Ramann † Germany Sir John Russell † UK S. Winogradski † USSR

1927 P. Treitz † Hungary 1935 E.A. Mitscherlich † Germany

A. d’Sigmond † Hungary J. Stoklasa † Czechoslovakia G. Wiegner † Switzerland

1950 A. Demolon † France D.J. Hissink † Netherlands W.P. Kelley † USA

1954 S. Mattson † Sweden E. Truog † USA

1956 G. Bertrand † France E.C.J. Mohr † Netherlands

1960 F.A. Bear † USA 1964 J.A. Prescott † Australia 1968 F. Hardy † UK

W.L. Kubiena † Germany L.A. Richards † USA A.A. Rode † USSR

1974 R. Bradfield † USA G.V. Jacks † UK Ch.E. Kellogg † USA M.K. Kononova † USSR A. Oudin † France F. Scheffer † Germany

1978 G. Barbier † France V. Ignatieff † Canada Y. Ishizuka † Japan L. Krolikowski † Poland L. Vettori † Brazil

1982 Ph. Duchaufour † France W. Flaig † Germany V. Kovda † USSR E. Mueckenhausen † Germany E.W. Russell † UK

1986 H. Jenny † USA D. Kirkham † USA S.K. Mukherjee † India R. Tavernier † Belgium

1990 G. Aubert † France E.G. Hallsworth † Australia J.S. Kanwar India P. Schachtschabel † Germany R.W. Simonson † USA I. Szabolcs † Hungary

1998 G.H. Bolt Netherlands R. Dudal Belgium K.H. Hartge † Germany M. Kutilek Czech Rep. J. Quirk Australia W.G. Sombroek † Netherlands K. Wada Japan D.H. Yaalon Israel S.V. Zonn † Russia

2002 R.W. Arnold USA G.V. Dobrovolsky Russia W. Gardner † USA H.M. Hamdi † Egypt L.A.L. Sarmiento Colombia F. Mancini Italy B.S. Nosko Ukraine R. Rosell Argentina A. Ruellan France A. Tanaka Japan P.B.H Tinker UK

2006 W.E.H. Blum AustriaH-P. Blume GermanyJ. Bouma NetherlandsS-J. Cho South KoreaJ. Glinski PolandM.G.H. Jamagne FranceD.R. Nielsen USAJ.H.V. van Baren † NetherlandsL.P. Wilding USA

2010 C. Feller FranceK. Kumazawa JapanK. Kyuma JapanJ. Ryan SyriaB.A. Stewart USAV. Targulian RussiaG. Varallyay HungaryJ.S.P. Yadav † India