Soils, Land and Life Book

Acknowledgments     xi
About the Author     xiii
Introduction     1
We Each Know Some Land, Life, and Soil Systems     3
Setting of the Soil, Land, and Life Drama     5
Human Food and the Land Where it is Produced     8
Other Human Uses of Land     12
Who Produces Human Food?     14
If It Works Here, Will It Work There?     15
Literature Cited     18
Water in Soil, Land, and Life     19
The Rains Come and Go     19
Surface of the Land-Soil     21
Raindrops Hitting the Soil     23
Temporary Retention of Water in the Soil     25
Leaching and Groundwater     31
Alteration of Voids in the Soil     32
Water in the Plant     34
Water Dynamics During a Growing Season     35
Water Patterns on the Land     36
When Does the Septic System Fail and the Well Go Dry?     38
Perspective on Water     40
Literature Cited     41
Temperature in Soil, Land, and Life     43
Daily Temperature Dynamics in the Soil     44
Seasonal Dynamics of Soil Temperature in Temperate Latitudes     47
Altitudeand Shape of the Land Influence Air and Soil Temperature     49
Temperature Dynamics, Aspect, and Day Length in the Tropics     51
Soil Temperature and Crop Selection     52
Air Temperature over the Land     54
Frost-Free Season     55
Influence of Temperature on Water Use in Food Production     55
Geographic Locations of Seasonal Moisture for Crops     62
Perspective     64
Literature Cited     65
Elements Essential for Life     67
Law of the Minimum     67
Balance     69
Essential Elements from the Air     70
Essential Elements in the Soil     71
The pH Theme of Soil Chemistry     76
Elemental Forms not Directly Available to Plants     77
Inorganic or Mineral Forms of Essential Elements     77
Organic Forms of Essential Elements in the Soil     80
Forms of Major Essential Elements in Soil     83
The Other Essential Elements     86
Determining the Fertility of a Soil     88
Perspective on the Essential Elements and Fertility of Soils     89
Literature Cited     89
Elemental Transfers in the Soil, Land, and Life System     91
Mineral Pool     92
Available Pool     99
Organic Pool     100
Overview of Essential Elements Passing Through the Soil-Plant System     102
Amounts and Magnitudes     104
Natural Versus Crop Production Ecosystems     107
Essential Elemental Flow and Indigenous Slash-and-Burn Farming     109
Overview of Elemental Transfers in Soil, Land, and Life     110
Literature Cited     111
Soils and Land with Unique Features     113
Cold Beer But No Popcorn: Permafrost     113
Too Dry to Take Root     114
Too Much Salt: High Blood Pressure     117
Too Much Alkali: Soft Soap Treatment     120
That Bitter Taste: Aluminum Toxicity     122
Embalmed Plant Remains: Peat and Muck     126
"Cat Clay": Acid Sulfate Soils     130
Too Much Water: "Hydric Soils"     131
New from the Top Down: Volcanoes and Floodplains     134
Overview of Unique Soils     135
Literature Cited     136
Soil Families on the Land     139
The Hill Family: Crest, Shoulder, Side Slope, Toe Slope, and Bottomland     141
Manage Fields or Soils?     148
Water Management for the Hill-Slope Family     149
Controlling Erosion?     155
Does Soil Benefit or Lose from Erosion?     157
Eccentric Siblings     160
Sporadic Events on the Land     163
Perspective     166
Literature Cited     168
Activities on the Land     171
Human Requirements from the Land     172
Geologic Bloodline of Soil     173
Natural Dynamics of Land     177
Human Alterations to the Land     181
Human Intervention to Obtain Water     182
Human Quest for Temperature     185
Human Quest for Essential Elements     186
Spectrum of Human Challenges on the Land     187
Warm, Watered, and Extremely Infertile Land     188
Warm, Watered, and Slightly Fertile     193
Chitemente in Zambia     201
Composting     202
Manure Gathering     204
Mineral Fertile Soils     205
Perspective of Activity on the Land     209
Literature Cited     211
What It Takes to Do Our Job     213
Harvesting Sunshine     213
Size of the "Solar Panel" Cropland     214
Agriculture is Bigger than Farming      217
No Free Lunch: Harvest Equals Inputs     219
Replenishing the Elements Harvested in Food     221
The Right Time to Fertilize     226
Farming Changes on Slightly Fertile Land     227
Farming Changes on Fertile Lands     231
Feeding Concentrations of People     234
Crop Fertilizer not Soil Fertilizer     238
Nutritional Quality of Plants     239
How Much Cropland?     241
"Free" Nitrogen?     241
Unevenness in the World     242
"Good" Soils Keep Going     245
Possible Scenarios     247
Literature Cited     247
Societal Obligations to Soil, Land, and Life     249
Societies' Interaction with Soil, Land, and Life     249
Technical-Political Communication     250
Policies to Promote Soil Conservation     255
Impediments to Food Production     256
Agribusiness and Agricultural Production     258
The Right Place and the Right Time     261
Sustainability     262
A Stitch in Time: Preventative Medicine     264
Societal Experience with Farming     265
The Art of Soil, Land, and Life     267
The Bottom Line     270
Literature Cited     271
Soil Orders as Classified by the National Cooperative Soil Survey     273
Conversion Factors for International Standard Units (SI) and Non-SI Units, Fertilizer Oxide and Element Values, and Per Bushel Grain Weights     275
Glossary     279
Index     291