Soil; Soil formation; Physical properties of soils; Soil water; Soil organic matter; Soil mnineralogy; Soil chemistry; Amending the soil; Fertilizers; Nitrogen; Phosphorus; Potassium; Calcium, Magnesium and Sulfur; The micronutrients; Variations in plant composition; Soil classification and survey; Land use and soil management; Water management; Soil conservation; Soil pollution.

Recommended by users for its clear explanations and readability. Troeh and Thompson's Soil; and Soil Fertility provides and excellent overview of soils for students in agriculture and the environmental sciences. Now in its sixth edition, this book has been updated throughout and incorporates discussions of GIS (geographic information system) and GPS (global positioning system), humus and its function in soil structure and fertility, soil reclamation for sites contaminated by pesticides or petroleum spills, and advances in the understanding of water flow. In addition a new chapter on soil mechanics has been added, explaining the use of soils as foundation and construction material. Although fully updated, the text retains essential information on basic topics such as soil formation, soil chemistry, physical properties of soil, organic matter, mineralogy, and soil water movement and storage. It includes a detailed discussion of plant nutrients, their deficiency symptoms, and the fertilizers and soil amendments used to correct those deficiencies. Troeh and Thompson make a special effort to provide a uniquely broad perspective, complementing the varied backgrounds and interests of today's students. Instructors and students will appreciate this broad-based approach and through coverage.

Soils are one of the world's most important resources, and their protection, maintenance, and improvement is critical to the continuance of life on earth. Soil Fertility, Second Edition, offers thorough coverage of the fertility, composition, properties, and management of soils. This book carries on the tradition of excellence established by authors Henry Foth and Boyd Ellis, leading soil scientists whose previous books in this field have become multi-edition classics. The Second Edition of Soil Fertility has been significantly expanded to include more information on mineralogy, while keeping the thorough coverage of essential topics. The book presents soils as dynamic, constantly changing bodies, and relates soil fertility and management to the mineralogy of their origin. Four new chapters offer updated information on soil charge properties, ion adsorption, exchange and fixation, and soil reaction. There is also a far greater emphasis on environmental issues, reflecting the increasing importance of environmental concerns to agronomists and soil scientists today.

Fertilizers in a changing world. Soil fertility - past and present. Growth and the factors affecting it. Elements required in plant nutrition. Basic soil-plant relationships. Soil and fertilizer: phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, calcium, and magnesium. Micronutrients and other beneficial elements in soils and fertilizers. Fertilizer manufacture. Soil acidity and liming. Soil fertility evaluation. Fundamentals of fertilizer application. Cropping systems and soil management. Ecomomics of plant-nutrient use. Fertilizers and efficient use of water. Interaction of plant nutrients in a high-yield agriculture.

Morphology of soils; Soil micromorphology; Soil composition and characterization; Weathering and soil formation; Pedogenic processes: internal, soil-building processes; Soil environment: External factors of soil formation; Parent material: initial material of the solum; Relief and landscape factors of the soil and its environment; Contributions of climate to the total soil environment; Organisms: biological portion of the soil and its environment; Time as a factor of soil formation; Principles and historical development of soil classification; Modern soil classification systems; Entisols:recently formed soils: Vertisols: shrinking and swelling dark clay soils; In ceptisols: emleryonic soils with few diagnostic features; Aridisols: soils of arid regions; Mollisols: grassland soils of steppes and prairies; Spodosols: soils with subsoil, accumulations of sesquioxide and humus; Alfisols:high base status soils; Ultisols: low base status forest soils: Oxisols: sesquioxide - rihch, highly weathered soils of the intertropical regions; Histosols: organic soils.