Encyclopedia of Soil Science

The preface to this book is well worth reading because it puts the content in wider context. It describes soil as the most complex geological system which indicates the intellectual interest of the topic, and it also comments on the fact that there is no fully sustainable system of agriculture, which puts the topic at the centre of international affairs. An article in the current edition, as I write, of New Scientist (Aldous, 2008) shows that agriculture is the major producer by far of greenhouse gases. Interestingly, the solutions it proposes are in plant physiology and genetics, not...