Essential Minerals in Plant-Soil Systems: Coordination, Signaling and Interaction Under Adverse Conditions is the first book to encompass these key aspects of plant science, biochemistry, soil science and fertilizer development in a single volume. Describing the micro- and macronutrients in the plant-soil system with the help of suitable illustrations, the book connects all the pieces enabling comprehensive and connected understanding. Terrestrial plants are sessile in nature. They face various adverse environmental conditions including soil nutrient-deficiency signals, which influence overall plant growth and development. Some of the essential nutrients are unreachable to roots due to their low solubility and relative immobilization. Thus, the soil-plant system has evolved signaling, communication and coordination responses for survival under multiple adverse situations. By evolving highly sophisticated mechanisms at the cellular as well as whole-plant scale, these plants have developed ways to co-regulate these stresses in order to maintain homeostasis. Essential Minerals in Plant-Soil Systems covers recent advances in the understanding of how plants coordinate the acquisition, transport, signaling, and interaction, cross-talks between macro- and micro-nutrients in adverse environmental situations. These points are key to understanding the significance of essential, as well as beneficial, elements for sustainable plant growth and production. This book is a valuable reference for those putting research into practice in addressing stress situations, as well as providing important foundational insights for further research. - Provides a comprehensive overview of micro- and macronutrients and their interaction with phytohormones under stress conditions - Explores proteomic and genomic research into deficiencies and toxicities in plant systems - Highlights the use of nanobiotechnology for controlled release of micro- and macronutrients in the plant-soil systems

The burgeoning demand on the world food supply, coupled with concern over the use of chemical fertilizers, has led to an accelerated interest in the practice of precision agriculture. This practice involves the careful control and monitoring of plant nutrition to maximize the rate of growth and yield of crops, as well as their nutritional value.

This text presents the principles of mineral nutrition in the light of current advances. For this second edition more emphasis has been placed on root water relations and functions of micronutrients as well as external and internal factors on root growth and the root-soil interface.

Today's approach to crop production considers not only the effects of fertilizer applications on crop yield and quality but also includes awareness of the potential of fertilizer nutrients to adversely affect the environment. Managing crop nutrients deliberately and carefully takes on special significance in Hawaii, where imported nutrient inputs are costly and the environment--particularly the underground aquifer and coastal waters--is vulnerable to pollution. This book contains a distillation of decades of CTAHR research on soils, fertilizers, and crop nutrient needs, written for the lay reader and intended to provide a solid base of knowledge for the serious agriculturist. While the text makes reference to Hawaii's crops and soil conditions, its basic information is transferrable to similar tropical and subtropical locations throughout the world.

Annotation. Successful agroforestry requires an understanding of the complex relationship between trees, crops and soils. This book provides a review of both economic and biophysical aspects of soil use and research in agroforestry, with an emphasis on nutrient-poor forest and savanna soils. Key topics covered include the economics of soil fertility management, cycling of water, nutrients and organic matter, soil structure, and soil biological processes. The book combines synthetic overviews of research results and a review of methods used in research.From the foreword: 2The book is written within a particular context - soil fertility development under agroforestry. At first this may seem very specific and thus limited in appeal and application. But over the last decade or so agroforestry research has been one of the most influential in developing new insights into soil biology and fertility and thus provides a very suitable framework for review of progress. Furthermore the influence of trees on soil is profound and of significance beyond agroforestry systems, so the book is likely to be of interest in the wider spheres of agriculture, forestry and ecological sciences.3 Mike Swift, TSBF, Nairobi, Kenya.

Plant nutrition; The soil as a plant nutrient medium; Nutrient uptake and assimilation; Plant water relationships; Plant growth and crop production; Fertilizer application; Nitrogen; Sulphur; Phosphorus; Potassium; Calcium; Magnesium; Iron; Manganese; Zinc; Copper; Molybdenum; Boron; Further elements of importance; Elements with more toxic effects.

Mineral Nitrogen in the Plant-Soil System provides integrated accounts of the transformations and fate of mineral nitrogen in the plant-soil system. This book emphasizes the understanding of various processes and the factors that affect these processes. It also focuses on the role of biological nitrogen fixation in nitrogen cycling in natural and agricultural systems. The book is divided into seven major chapters and each chapter is further subdivided into various subtopics. The first chapter introduces and outlines the origin, distribution, and cycling of nitrogen in natural and agricultural terrestrial ecosystems. Chapter 2 focuses on the processes of decomposition and mineralization-immobilization turnover. The processes of nitrification are discussed in detail in Chapter 3. The following four chapters discuss topics of retention and movement of nitrogen in soils; gaseous losses of nitrogen; uptake and assimilation of mineral nitrogen by plants; and lastly, the use of nitrogen in agronomic practice. The book will be invaluable to graduate students and researchers in the field of agriculture. This will also cater other parties interested, such as agronomists, soil scientists, plant physiologists, horticulturists, and foresters.