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A unique compendium of the most important and widespread soils of Australia and their associated landscapes.
This essential reference provides an introduction to the remarkable soils and landscapes of Australia. It reveals their great diversity and explains why an understanding of soil properties and landscape processes should guide our use of the land. Using striking photographs of characteristic landscapes, it begins by describing the basic properties of soils and how Australia's distinctive soils and landscapes have co-evolved. We gain a greater understanding of why particular soils occur at certain locations and how soil variation can influence landscape processes, agricultural productivity and ecosystem function. The book explains the impact of various forms of land use and the changes they can bring about in soil. This is followed by an invaluable compendium that describes and illustrates over 100 of the more important and widespread soils of Australia, along with their associated landscapes. There is a brief account of each soil's environment, usage and qualities as well as details on chemical and physical properties so we can make more informed decisions about appropriate land-use. Australian Soils and Landscapes will be a valuable resource for farmers, natural resource managers, soil and environmental scientists, students and anyone with an interest in Australia's unique environment.
The Australian Soil Classification provides a framework for organising knowledge about Australian soils by allocating soils to classes via a key. Since its publication in 1996, this book has been widely adopted and formally endorsed as the official national system. It has provided a means of communication among scientists and land managers and has proven to be of particular value in land resource survey and research programs, environmental studies and education. Classification is a basic requirement of all science and needs to be periodically revised as knowledge increases. This Second Edition of The Australian Soil Classification includes updates from a working group of the National Committee on Soil and Terrain (NCST), especially in regards to new knowledge about acid sulfate soils (sulfidic materials). Modifications include expanding the classification to incorporate different kinds of sulfidic materials, the introduction of subaqueous soils as well as new Vertosol subgroups, new Hydrosol family criteria and the consistent use of the term reticulate. All soil orders except for Ferrosols and Sodosols are affected by the changes.
The Australian Soil and Land Survey Field Handbook specifies methods and terminology for soil and land surveys. It has been widely used throughout Australia, providing one reference set of definitions for the characterisation of landform, vegetation, land surface, soil and substrate. The book advocates that a comprehensive suite of land and soil attributes be recorded in a uniform manner. This approach is more useful than the allocation of land or soil to preconceived types or classes. The third edition includes revised chapters on location and vegetation as well as some new landform elements. These updates have been guided by the National Committee on Soil and Terrain, a steering committee comprising representatives from key federal, state and territory land resource assessment agencies. Essential reading for all professionals involved in land resource surveys, this book will also be of value to students and educators in soil science, geography, ecology, agriculture, forestry, resource management, planning, landscape architecture and engineering.
The soil water retention curve, the saturated hydraulic conductivity and the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function are basic soil hydraulic functions and parameters. Ample apprehension of the soil hydraulic functions and parameters is required for a successful formulation of the principles leading to sustainable soil management, agricultural production and environmental protection. From these, all the other parameters, required in the solution of the practical tasks, are derived. The basic soil hydraulic functions are strongly dependent upon the soil porous system. The development of models is characteristic by the gradual transition from the simplest concepts up to the sophisticated approaches, which should correspond to the visual reality studied by soil micromorphology. 2 Soil Porous System and Soil Micromorphometry 2.1 An Overview on the Quantification of the Soil Porous System Quanti? cation of the soil porous system consists of classi? cation of soil pores, ch- acterization of the soil pores shapes and the estimation of the pore size distribution function. When the hydraulic functions of the soil pores are considered, the following laws of hydrostatics and hydrodynamics are applied as best ? tting to the classi? cation criteria of the size of the pores (Kutilek and Nielsen 1994, p. 20, Kutilek 2004): A. Submicroscopic pores that are so small that they preclude clusters of water molecules from forming ? uid particles or continuous water ? ow paths.
Over the last twenty years there has been a major expansion of knowledge in the field of landforms and landforming processes of deserts. This advanced-level book provides a benchmark for the current state of science, and is written by an international team of authors who are acknowledged experts in their fields.
A practical guide to soil tests for Australian soils and conditions.
Interpreting Soil Test Results is a practical reference enabling soil scientists, environmental scientists, environmental engineers, land holders and others involved in land management to better understand a range of soil test methods and interpret the results of these tests. It also contains a comprehensive description of the soil properties relevant to many environmental and natural land resource issues and investigations. This new edition has an additional chapter on soil organic carbon store estimation and an extension of the chapter on soil contamination. It also includes sampling guidelines for landscape design and a section on trace elements. The book updates and expands sections covering acid sulfate soil, procedures for sampling soils, levels of nutrients present in farm products, soil sodicity, salinity and rainfall erosivity. It includes updated interpretations for phosphorus in soils, soil pH and the cation exchange capacity of soils. Interpreting Soil Test Results is ideal reading for students of soil science and environmental science and environmental engineering; professional soil scientists, environmental scientists, engineers and consultants; and local government agencies and as a reference by solicitors and barristers for land and environment cases.
The purpose of Advances in Soil Science is to provide a forum for leading scientists to analyze and summarize the available scientific information on a subject, assessing its importance and identifying additional research needs. A wide array of subjects has been addressed by authors from many countries in the initial ten volumes of the series. The quick acceptance of the series by both authors and readers has been very gratifying and confirms our perception that a need did exist for a medium to fill the gap between the scientific journals and the comprehensive reference books. This volume is the first of the series devoted entirely to a single topic soil degradation. Future volumes will include both single-topic volumes as well as volumes containing reviews of different topics of soil science, as in the case of the first ten volumes. There are increasing concern and attention about managing natural re sources, particularly soil and water. Soil degradation is clearly one of the most pressing problems facing mankind. Although the spotlight regarding soil degradation in recent years has focused on Africa, concern about the degradation of soil and water resources is worldwide. The widespread con cern about global environmental change is also being linked to severe problems of soil degradation. Therefore, we are indeed pleased that the first volume of the series devoted to a single topic addresses such an impor tant issue. The current volume is also the first of the series involving a guest editor.