iuss bulletin 115 hires

Bulletin of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) | November 2009

IUSS Bulletin

115

International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS)The IUSS Bulletin is the official Newsletter of the In-ternational Union of Soil Sciences. It is freely dis-tributed through the IUSS website. All contributionsare welcome and should be send to the editor.

EditorDr. Alfred E. HarteminkISRIC – World Soil InformationP.O. Box 353 6700 AJ WageningenThe NetherlandsPhone: +31 (0) 317 471 713E-mail: [email protected]

Secretary General Stephen Nortclif, [email protected] SGAlfred Hartemink, [email protected]

Division 1 Ahmet Mermut, [email protected] Division 2Ruben Kretzschmar, [email protected] Division 3 Wolfgang Burghardt, [email protected] Division 4Lyn Abbott, [email protected]

ISSN 0374-0447

CopyrightIUSSP.O. Box 353 6700 AJ WageningenThe Netherlands

Graphic DesignDaniël Looswww.bureaucontrapunt.nl

PresidentRoger Swift, [email protected] Vice President Neal Menzies, [email protected] Treasurer Jim Gauld, [email protected]

BudgetsRobin Harris, [email protected] AwardsWinfried Blum, [email protected] Statutes John Kimble, [email protected]

Orders toDr. Alfred E. HarteminkIUSSP.O. Box 353 6700 AJ WageningenThe Netherlands

I U S S B U L L E T I N 1152

N OV E M B E R 2009 3

Contents19th World Congress of Soil Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

IUSS ALERTS May – November 2009 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

ARTICLESSoil science gains voice in the US Government

by Karl Glasener . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Chemical Contaminants as a factor of soil-subsurface metagenesis

by B. Yaron, I. Dror and B. Berkowitz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

FIVE QUESTIONS TO A SOIL SCIENTISTFive questions to Alex McBratney (Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Five questions to Stephen Nortcliff (UK) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Five questions to Juan Ibanez (Spain). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

FAVOURITE SOIL SCIENCE BOOKSChristian Walter (France) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Anthony Young (UK) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Alain Ruellan (France) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Victor Targulian is 75! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

OBITUARIES Stanislaw Moskal (Poland) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Karel Sys (Belgium) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Luis Sarmiento (Colombia) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Karl Hartge (Germany) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Peter Nye (UK). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Pieter Buringh (Netherlands) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Ming Huang (Canada) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

REPORTS OF MEETINGS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

NEW PUBLICATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

IUSS HONORARY MEMBERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

1. We have reached a milestone in the planning for theCongress – the initial closing date for the papers hasnow been reached. There has been an excellent re-sponse to the Call for Papers, with around 2000 sub-missions received by the official close date.

2. There have been many requests, from interna-tional institutions as well as individual authors,for more time to submit papers. The Congresscommittee is also keen to ensure that the scien-tific program is inclusive of the global soil sciencecommunity and that as extensive a program aspossible is provided for delegates. With these inmind, we have decided to extend the submissiondates as follows: a. Oral Papers: The final close date for papers tobe considered for oral presentation at the Con-gress is now 30 November 2009.b. Poster Papers: Papers to be considered forposter presentation will now be accepted until31st January 2010.

3. We are preparing the papers already received fordistribution to session Chairs to allocate the oralpresentation slots.

4. Sponsorship of the Congress reflects the impor-tance with which the event is seen within andoutside Australia. We have Patron and Majorsponsors in place and a stream of smaller or morespecific sponsorships now being received.

5. Early registration is now open. Apart from theconsiderable incentive of a smaller registrationfee – there will be a holiday prize for a lucky earlyregistrant! Go to: http://www.19wcss.org.au/del-egate-registration.html

6. A comprehensive list of tours can now be seen onthe website. These include substantial and excit-ing Pre- and Post-Congress Tours, in addition toan interesting selection of shorter Congress Ex-cursions available just before or after the week ofthe Congress. See:http://www.19wcss.org.au/congress-tours.htmlhttp://www.19wcss.org.au/congress_excursions.html

7. The main Congress program is developing. A visit tohttp://www.19wcss.org.au/congress-program.htmlwill show you the program outline. It is importantto note that hidden behind the brief headline‘Plenary Sessions’, will be a time each morningwhen the entire Congress assembles to hear per-spectives on major integrated challenges wheresoil science plays key roles. We will update you onthese as the program develops.

8. Congress updates are sent to an email databaseof approximately 11 000 addresses. If you wish toadd your name to the list please emailhttp://www.19wcss.org.au/contact-us.html

9. All is building for a vibrant and interesting Con-gress. It is now time to register!


19th World Congress of Soil Science

Bravo ENVASSOThe ENVironmental ASsessmentof Soil for mOnitoring (EN-VASSO) Project was funded asScientific Support to Policy (SSP)

under the European Commission 6th Framework Pro-gramme. The project’s main objective was to defineand document a soil monitoring system for imple-mentation in support of a Soil Framework Directive,aimed at protecting soil in the EU. The ENVASSO Con-sortium, comprising 37 partners drawn from 25 EUMember States, succeeded in reviewing existing soilinventories, monitoring programmes, soil indicatorsand criteria that could serve as a base for a soil mon-itoring system for Europe. Procedures and protocolsappropriate for inclusion in a European soil monitor-ing system were defined and fully documented and22 of these procedures were evaluated in 28 PilotAreas. In conclusion, an outline European Soil Moni-toring System, comprising a network of geo-refer-enced sites at which a qualified sampling process isor could be conducted, is presented. The six final re-ports from the ENVASSO project can be downloadedfrom http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu/projects/envasso/

Soil science enthusiasm on videoDeclining number of soil sciencestudents is a concern in many uni-versities. We can sit down andgrumble, or we can do somethingabout it. One of the remedies is toshow the great variety of soil sci-

ence jobs. Melissa Peart from Australia tells herstory in this video. Melissa enjoyed science at schooland originally wanted to study history and be an ar-chaeologist. But when she heard about a degree inland and water science at Sydney University, sheturned her attention to the environment. The course

covered natural resources and sustainability, specif-ically looking at agriculture, soil, hydrology, geologyand geographical information systems. It also of-fered plenty of field trips. After finishing her honoursin soil salinity, Melissa was headhunted by a consul-tancy group where she worked for three years. GreatBits: “I find there’s a good balance in my job. It does-n’t involve me just sitting in front of a computer. Iget to travel and go out into the field to do soil andgroundwater testing. It’s an awesome job and I’dlove to keep doing this for a very long time.”

Africasoils.netKnowledge about thecondition and trend ofAfrican soils is highlyfragmented and dated.

There is an urgent need for accurate, up-to-date andspatially referenced soil information to support agri-culture in Africa. This coincides with developmentsin technologies that allow for accurate collection andprediction of soil properties. The Africa Soil Infor-mation Service (AfSIS) will develop a practical,timely, cost-effective, soil health surveillance serv-ice to map soil conditions, set a baseline for moni-toring changes, and provide options for improvedsoil and land management. The system will facilitatethe identification of areas at risk of soil degradationand corresponding preventive and rehabilitative soilmanagement interventions based on analysis ofwhat works and what doesn’t. This project will buildon recent advances in digital soil mapping, infraredspectroscopy, remote sensing, statistics, and inte-grated soil fertility management. Dissemination andtraining will make the project’s outcomes highly ac-cessible to farm communities, public and private ex-tension services, national agricultural research andsoil survey organizations, the fertilizer sector, proj-

N OV E M B E R 2009 5

IUSS Alerts May – November 2009

Information for and from the global soil science community IUSS Alerts are e-mailed to more than 12,000 people in over 100 countries. If you have information toshare, please send it to [email protected] Below are the still relevant contributions that appearedin the IUSS Alerts between May and November 2009.

ect and local planners, national and regional policy-makers, and scientists. The efforts in Africa are partof a wider, global effort to digitally map the world’ssoil resources – www.globalsoilmap.net

Frozen soilPermafrost and seasonally frozenground regions occupy approxi-mately 24% and 60%, respectively,of the exposed land surface in theNorthern Hemisphere. The actualarea underlain by permafrost is

approximately 12% to 18% of the exposed landarea. Frozen ground data and information collectedover past decades, and to be collected in the future,are critical for fundamental process understanding,environmental change detection, impact assess-ment, model validation, and engineering applica-tions. However, much of this information remainswidely dispersed and unavailable to the science andengineering communities, and some data are indanger of being lost permanently. The InternationalPermafrost Association (IPA) has developed a strat-egy for data and information management to meetthe requirements of cold regions science, engineer-ing, and modeling communities. A central compo-nent of this strategy is the Global GeocryologicalData (GGD) system, an internationally distributedsystem linking investigators and data centers aroundthe world. The Frozen Ground Data Center has nowpublished on this web site and continues to expandand improve access to frozen ground data. Themaps are at: http://nsidc.org/fgdc/maps/

Soils for kidsThere are many initiatives to popu-larise soils for school kids. Henry Fer-guson, a soil scientist at the NationalGeospatial Development Center in theUSA, has a website with ideas, inter-

esting suggestions and a couple of simple experi-ments illustrating some soil processes. There is alsolesson plan suitable for elementary or secondary ed-ucators which includes materials and preparation,background information, student procedure and astudent worksheet. Visit his website : http://www2.ngdc.wvu.edu/~hferguson/educationngdc

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Eijkelkamp e+ SOIL MCT sensor/logger

This intelligent e+ sensor measuresMoisture content, electrical Conductivityand Temperature in soils or comparablesubstrates. Measured data are stored in-ternally and can be transferred optically

to the user via the e-SENSE telemetry system or di-rectly to an e+ CONTROL or laptop. The measuringprinciple of the sensor is based on the Frequency Do-main Method (FD), described by Wageningen Uni-versity & Research Centre, at a frequency of 20 MHz,from which the system derives:• permittivity• conductivity• temperatureThe internal software can automatically compensatethe conductivity for the measured temperature. Seewww.eijkelkamp.com for more information.

African Science Network

The African Science Network is a growing onlinenetwork of scientists and science enthusiasts ofAfrican descent and other nationalities who havean interest in the development and application ofscience in Africa . If you have not registered yet, weencourage scientists to go to the website and reg-ister for free, and also encourage your friends orcolleagues to register. Every service that we provideis free. There are great incentives to being a regis-tered member, all registered members will be ableto post and publish articles, get automatic emailnotification when new articles are submitted bymembers, we also have discussion forum wheremembers discuss and share ideas on related fieldof work. The website allows users to post jobs,search for jobs, post conferences, grants, study pro-grams and collaboration opportunities in. The sitewill soon have added features for members to in-vite friends and make new friends.


Soil-climate change podcast

A podcast has been recorded as part of the Interna-tional Year of Planet Earth on soils and climatechange. The soil under our feet has a complex rela-tionship with our warming world. Soil microbiologistCharles Rice exlpains that soil helps take carbondioxide out of the air – it absorbs millions of tonseach year. But Earth is still warming, and, as it doesso, microorganisms in the soil release carbon.Charles Rice: With warmer temperatures, just likeour warm bodies, the microorganisms grow fasterand so they need more food, so they would feed onthat organic carbon. So as they’re feeding on that,then they’re releasing that carbon back to the at-mosphere as carbon dioxide. He said that keepingcarbon locked in soil also keeps soil healthy and re-sults in better crops, and there’s a multiple win situ-ation. Hear the whole podcast at: http://www.earthsky.org/radioshows/53195/warm-ing-earth-warming-soil

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Eijkelkamp calcimeterThe calcimeter by Eijkelkamp is suitablefor the simultaneous determination ofthe carbonate content in 5 samples.Where possible the vulnerable glass hasbeen replaced by synthetic materials. Ashydrochloric acid is used a stable andergonomic design was chosen. The cal-

cimeter is delivered complete with reaction vesselsand test tubes (without reagents). Approximatelyone hour is required per recation. Carbonates thatare hard to dissolve, such as sea shells , may takemore reaction time. The benefits are: Accuratemeasurements the easiest way; 5 flasks allow batch-wise working; Rapid results; Modern tool to suit theprofessional lab. See www.eijkelkamp.com for moreinformation

New PedometronThe latest version of Pedometron hasnow been published on the IUSS and Pe-dometrics website. There is ample in-formation on the last pedometrics

meeting in Beijing, a report from the EGU in Vienna,the nine chapters of mathematical art, the Gods ofsoil, a pedometrics family tree, the agua salud proj-ect, soil bibliometrics pedomathemagica, profilesfrom Zhou Shi and John Crawford and a book review.Plenty to read and fun too!

1 km soil moisture for Southern African and Australia

The regularly updated soil moisturedataset with 1 km spatial resolutionis available for free for SouthernAfrican Development Community(SADC) SADC and Australia. Thedataset has been generated within

the framework of the European Space Agency’s(ESA) DUE Tiger project SHARE and is a result of thecooperation between Vienna Technical Universityand University of Kwazulu Natal. The soil moistureproducts are based on the newest radar satellitetechnology (ENVISAT’s Advanced Synthetic ApertureRadar (ASAR) and Metop’s Advanced Scatterometer(ASCAT) sensors). The synergistic use of both sys-tems allows frequent, medium resolution monitor-ing of regional soil moisture dynamics. The regularbulletin on soil moisture datasets can be down-loaded at :www.ipf.tuwien.ac.at/radar/share/index.php?go=bulletin

N OV E M B E R 2009 7

By: Karl GlasenerSoil Science Society of AmericaEmail: [email protected]

The Soil Science Society of America’s (SSSA) SciencePolicy Office, started in 1986 and based in Washing-ton, DC, educates United States (US) federal govern-ment policymakers about and advocates for soil andthe soil sciences. As a result, US agricultural, naturalresources and environmental legislation and corre-sponding federal rules and regulations are more sci-entifically sound and appropriately incorporate andaddress soil science priorities. Moreover, funding forsoil science supported by US federal agencies in-cluding the National Science Foundation, Depart-ment of Agriculture, National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration, Department of Energy, Environmen-tal Protection Agency and others, increases annually,e.g., funding at the National Science Foundation forsoil and soil-related sciences is estimated to total400 million dollars! Today’s US Congress, composed of 435 Representa-tives and 100 Senators, includes just five scientists—three physicists, one chemist and a psychologist. Theaverage Congressional staff member (staff really doall of the heavy lifting for members of Congress) withwhom the SSSA Science Policy Office interacts daily,is a 23-year-old with an undergraduate degree in po-litical science. While these young people are gener-ally very intelligent, enthusiastic and quick studies,many of them just don’t get the importance of soiland soil science. I remember vividly a meeting I hada couple of years ago with a young staff member ofa California Representative. When I told him that wewanted the Congressman to join the CongressionalSoils Caucus, he responded, “My boss is only inter-ested in clean water issues.”Concerned with the lack of soil science expertise in theUS Congress, the Soil Science Society of America se-lected its first Congressional Science Fellow (Fellowsspend one year in the House of Representatives or Sen-ate as a science advisor) in 1986; we selected our 33rd

Fellow last month who works in the office of SenatorDick Durbin, a Democrat from the state of Illinois. Manyof our Congressional Science Fellow alumni, the author

being one of them, have elected to stay on in the Con-gress or White House and Federal Agencies or with ascientific society, to serve as a scientific resource andeducate policymakers about the importance of andneed to support soil and the soil sciences.In 1994, the Soil Science Society of America estab-lished a half-time Science Policy Director’s (SPD)position also in Washington, DC which became afull-time one in 2000. The SPD interacts with fed-eral policymakers, teaching them about and urgingtheir support for soil and soil science. The SPD alsocommunicates with SSSA members about impor-tant laws or rules and regulations addressing oursciences. Finally, the SPD taps into the more than6,000 SSSA members informing them about andproviding them opportunities to speak up for poli-cies and funding supportive of soil and soil science.More details about SSSA’s “grassroots advocacy”program follow below. Nine years later in 2003, the Soil Science Society ofAmerica selected its first Science Policy Intern (SPI)to assist the Science Policy Director. Serving fromthree to 12 months, SPIs handle much of the day-to-day tasks such as setting up meetings with Congres-sional offices, organizing workgroups to review andcomment on draft legislation, or leading SSSA grass-roots advocacy efforts.

Finally, two years ago (2007), the Soil Science Soci-ety of America created the Policy Programs Coordi-nator (PPC) position to provide additionalproject-management capacity for the SSSA SciencePolicy Office. The PPC has allowed the Science Pol-icy Office to expand its reach significantly, broadeninteractions with other scientific societies and dis-ciplines, and take on major projects, e.g., climatechange legislation.In recent years, as the Soil Science Society of Amer-ica’s Science Policy Office has matured, many in-valuable policy tools have been developed to assistour science policy efforts including:Congressional Soils Caucus which, composed of 49 USRepresentatives who support soil and soil science,serves as a voice for our sciences in the US Congress.SSSA has been instrumental in forming and supporting

Soil Science Gains Voice in theUS Government


the CSC since 2006, when it was created, often provid-ing the CSC with educational briefings on topics se-lected by CSC members. For example, July 2008, withparts of the nation suffering from severe forest fires,CSC members asked SSSA to provide an educationalbriefing on Post Wildfire Management of Soil. SSSA hasalso provided CSC members educational briefings oncarbon sequestration, nutrient management andecosystem services. Finally, SSSA has periodically pro-vided CSC members with a scientific analysis of draftlegislation, e.g. recent climate change legislation beingdebated in the House of Representatives and Senate.(learn more about the CSC at: https://www.soils.org/science-policy/activities/congressional-soils-caucus).SSSA Rapid Response Team was created to providethe Science Policy Director access to the incrediblescientific expertise embodied in our 6,000 SSSAmembers. Often, Congressional offices contact usseeking expertise in a specific area, e.g., capacity forcropping systems employing conservation tillagepractices to sequester carbon. The fast, sometimescrazy, pace of Congress requires us to provide an an-swer sometimes in as little as 30 minutes! The SSSARRT often provides the Science Policy Office namesof scientific experts in minutes.SSSA Core Constituent Scientists Teams were re-cently developed to train SSSA members to interact

with policymakers to influence legislation and fund-ing supportive of our sciences. After all as the oldsaying goes, “All politics is local.” CCST leaders areSSSA members who’ve participated in CongressionalVisits organized annually by the Science Policy Officeduring which SSSA scientists travel to Washington,DC to learn how to advocate for a specific policy goaland are then led on visits with their Representativeand two Senators. Each CCST leader recruits two ormore CCST members initially who also learn how tocommunicate effectively with Congress. Overtime,the number of and size of CCSTs will increase untilone day (a dream really) there will be 435 CCSTS,corresponding to the 435 Congressional districtsmaking up this great nation.How does it all work? A recent successful effort topromote soil science in the 2008 Farm Bill (Farm Bill)provides a great example of how SSSA Science Policyresources and tools can be harnessed and employedtogether to achieve a specific policy goal. During theFarm Bill rewrite, while Congress reviewed, changedand added provisions addressing areas (titles) such asresearch, energy, horticulture, nutrition and others,SSSA identified in the Energy Title a biomass advisorycommittee (view committee at: http://www.brdiso-lutions.com/default.aspx) charged with counselingthe US Secretaries of Agriculture and Energy on how

N OV E M B E R 2009 9

SSSA leadership discusses soil carbon sequestration with Rep. Ben Chandler

best to produce the volume of biomass from the na-tion’s lands needed to meet a Renewable Fuel Stan-dard (RFS) set by Congress in 2007. Note: the RFSmandated that the volume of renewable fuel requiredto blend into gasoline increase from nine billion gal-lons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons by 2022. In our re-view of the Farm Bill legislation, we noticed that thisbiomass advisory committee was made of up engi-neers, economists, conservationists, industry repre-sentatives and other experts, but did not contain anagronomist, crop or soil scientist! While we were notsurprised with this oversight given how the agro-nomic, crop and soil sciences are often not taken intoconsideration due to a lack of understanding by poli-cymakers for their importance, we were still dismayedat this glaring omission of our expertise from the com-mittee makeup. After all, biomass crops are plantsand they grown in the soil! Who then is better quali-fied to counsel the Secretaries of Agriculture and En-ergy on how to reach the biomass goals then anagronomist, crop or soil scientist? Shorting this tale,below I’ve listed the steps taken and Science Policytools employed successfully, so that today an agron-omist, crop or soil scientist slot exists on this impor-tant biomass advisory committee:• April 2007—SSSA Science Policy Office, while re-

viewing Farm Bill text, discovers missing agro-nomic, crop and soil science expertise onbiomass advisory committee.

• May 2007—SSSA Science Policy Office asks SSSARapid Response Team (RRT) to identify scientistswith expertise in biomass production for biofu-els. SSSA RRT responds with list of experts andindicated scientists are contacted and asked todevelop a quick one-page biomass primer formembers of the House and Senate AgricultureCommittees, explaining the role of the agro-nomic, crop and soil sciences in achieving Re-newable Fuel Standard biomass productiongoals. Sciences. Note: from contacting SSSA RRTto completion of biomass primer took twoweeks).

• May 2007—SSSA contacts SSSA South DakotaCore Constituent Scientist Team (CCST) membersto seek their support persuading CongressionalSoils Caucus member Representative StephanieHerseth Sandlin to introduce an amendment dur-ing the Farm Bill debate to add an agronomist,crop or soil scientist to membership of the bio-mass advisory committee. SSSA Science Policy Di-rector meets with Herseth Sandlin’s office toeducate them about the issue and provide the

biomass primer. Strong response from SouthDakota CCST members and support from fellowCongressional Soils Caucus members results inRepresentative Herseth Sandlin introducingamendment which passes.

• November 2007—SSSA Science Policy Directormeets with staff from office of Senator TomHarkin (Democrat, Iowa), Chairman of the Sen-ate Agriculture Committee, to explain the bio-mass advisory committee issue, provide thebiomass primer and seek his support for similarbiomass advisory committee amendment. SSSAIowa CCST urges Senator Harkin to include provi-sion in Farm Bill. Senator Harkin includes provi-sion to include an agronomist, crop or soilscientist to the biomass advisory committee inthe Senate version of the Farm Bill.

• December 2007—Senate passes Farm Bill con-taining our provision.

• May 2008—Farm Bill is signed into law by Presi-dent.

The Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) SciencePolicy Office staff, SSSA Rapid Response Team, SSSAScientists, SSSA Core Constituent Scientist Teamsand the Congressional Soils Caucus, working in con-cert towards a common goal, were successful; oneof our scientists is a member of the biomass advi-sory board today! Additional opportunities for theSSSA Science Policy Office program exist now thatPresident Obama has released his top priorities: Re-newable energy, Climate change, Environmental is-sues (air and water quality), Food production andsecurity, Science funding, Science education andworkforce. All of these priorities must include con-sideration of and roles for soil science and involvethe soil resource. The Soil Science Society of Amer-ica Science Policy Office is poised to achieve evengreater policy successes during the coming years.


Bruno Yaron, Ishai Dror, Brian BerkowitzDepartment of Environmental Sciences and Energy Research, Weizmann Institute of ScienceRehovot, Israel

The soil and the subsurface region below it are twointerrelated natural bodies that comprise the earth’supper layer from land surface to aquifers. The ratiobetween these phases fluctuates as a function of en-vironmental conditions, while the subsurface watercontent ranges from air-dried to completely water-saturated. Because the soil-subsurface water contentis controlled by rainfall-irrigation, evaporation, anddepth to the groundwater, a vertical water gradientalways exists. The soil-subsurface zone, known alsoas the “critical zone” (CZ), also involves a large mi-crobiological population, which develops under bothaerobic or anaerobic conditions, and may affect thecomposition of the earth environment.In general, it is considered that the structure and prop-erties of the soil-subsurface zone are the result of nat-ural processes occurring over geological time scales.Despite the fact that the soil-subsurface has in manycases been affected by human impact, anthropogenicfactors in defining the actual matrix and properties ofthe soil-subsurface have been largely neglected. Human impacts on soil-subsurface properties have be-come a subject of interest only in the second part ofthe last century. In 1966, Yaalon and Yaron proposedthat anthropogenically-induced changes in the soil for-mation process should be considered an integral, in-dependent factor in addition to the five recognizednatural-forming factors. In contrast to these natural fac-tors, the rate of change of anthropogenically-inducedprocesses is relatively rapid, with fundamental soilproperties being changed within a short time. Yaalonand Yaron (1966) argue that in these changes occurwithin a new reference system in which the natural soilserves as a parent material at an initial state relative tothe new anthropogenically-formed soil. The differences

between the rates of impact on soil characteristics ofanthropogenic and natural-environmental factors sup-port the view that anthropogenically-induced changesto soil matrix and properties represent an additional,independent soil-forming factor.Over the last decades the anthropogenic role in soilformation has received further recognition, humanfactor being added to the classical natural factors In a recent, comprehensive position paper on an-thropogenic transformation of the earth’s soil, Richter(2007) reviewed the existing approaches on humanimpacts on soil formation. He distinguished betweencontemporary and historic influences and suggested apossible rapid change of the ecosystem on a timescale of decades as a frame for defining meta-genesisof new contemporary soils. Throughout this period,human recognized influences on soil-subsurface mod-ification have been reduced mainly to physically- andmechanically-induced changes, with chemical impactsbeing essentially neglected. However, toxic chemicalcompounds – which are produced and used by mod-ern society in enormous quantities – reach the landsurface directly or indirectly and may contaminate thesoil-vadose-aquifer zones. While reviewing a large number of research papers

on contaminant interactions in the soil-subsurfacegeosystem, during preparation of our book “Contam-inant Geochemistry” (Berkowitz et al., 2008), we ob-served that most research has focused on effect of thesoil-subsurface environment on the fate of contami-nants; while the impact of chemical contaminants onthe soil-subsurface region has been neglected. Somestudies have noted contaminant-induced changes inthe soil-subsurface matrix and properties, but thesechanges are generally considered as deviations fromthe “normal” situation which will disappear by naturalattenuation or by restoration procedures. However chemical contaminants often induce signif-icant alteration of the soil-subsurface matrix andproperties which may lead over a “lifetime” scale to

N OV E M B E R 2009 11

Chemical Contaminants as a Factor of Soil-SubsurfaceMetagenesis*

*This article is based on the paper “Contaminant geochemistry: a new perspective” by Yaron, Dror and Berkowitz (2009), pub-

lished recently online in Naturwissenschaften. (DOI 10.1007/s00114-009-0592-z)

irreversible changes. As the soil-subsurface region isan open thermodynamic system, it will never returnto its initial state following exposure to chemical con-tamination, and new soils with different matrices andproperties will be formed by changing the existingsystem. As a general perspective we present possibleirreversible changes in the matrix and properties ofsoil and subsurface natural systems as a result of an-thropogenic chemical contamination (Table 1).

As noted above, huge amounts of toxic chemicals aredirectly or indirectly released onto the land surface,which by precipitation and/or irrigation are trans-ported through the soil layer and vadose zone intogroundwater systems. Because we are interested inthe irreversible impact of chemical contaminants onthe soil-subsurface matrix and properties, it is impor-tant to consider their behavior in the “critical zone”(CZ). Organic contaminants, for example, may have anegative (toxic) or a beneficial (energy source) effecton biota and consequently on their persistence ornatural attenuation in the CZ environment. Naturalbiodegradation of organic contaminants will decreasewhen the released contaminants have a direct toxiceffect on biota, causing a decrease in biological activ-ity. Under these conditions contaminant persistencein the soil-subsurface system will increase. When anorganic contaminant represents a source of energy forthe natural biota, contaminant degradation will occurtogether with metabolite formation. This biologically-induced persistence-transformation process will af-fect the impact of contaminants and their metaboliteson potentially irreversible changes in soil-subsurfacematrix and properties. Natural organic compoundsmay serve as ligands for inorganic contaminants such

as heavy metals reaching the CZ, by forming organo-metallic complexes. Some forms of these compoundsmay be retained or transported within the CZ in amanner different than that of the original heavy metalcontaminant. However within the CZ, organo-metalliccompounds can be biodegraded by natural microbialpopulations. In this case, too, the impact of heavymetals on the soil and subsurface matrix will be dif-ferent than that of the pure heavy metal compounds.As a consequence, to consider and predict the extentof irreversible changes in soil-subsurface matrix andproperties, as induced by land disposal of anthro-pogenic contaminants, we must examine the fate ofchemicals within the CZ environment. In conclusion we consider that under specific condi-tions chemical contaminants may irreversibly changethe matrix and the properties of the soil-subsurfaceregion. In many cases, a contaminated soil-subsurfacesystem that formed under natural environmental con-ditions over geological time may be transformed overa short “human lifetime” into a new body with differ-ent matrix and properties. Once released on the landsurface, chemical contaminants may become a form-ing factor of a new soil-subsurface regime.

ReferencesBerkowitz B, Dror I, Yaron B (2008) Contaminant Geochem-

istry-Interactions and Transport in the Subsurface Envi-

ronment ,Springer, Heidelberg 412 pp

Richter DD (2007) Humanity’s transformation of earth’s soil:

pedology’s new frontiers. Soil Science 172: 957 -967

Yaalon DH, Yaron B (1966) Framework for man-made soil

changes – an outline of metapedogenesis. Soil Science

102:272-277


Matrix Configuration

Aqueous phase

• Salinity/alkalinity• Ionic composition• Presence of organic

ligands• Heavy metals• Toxic organic

substances• Radionuclides• Colloids

Solid phase

• Charge of clay surface

• Cation exchange capacity

• Organic matter configuration

• Hydration status• Clay redistribution

with depth

Properties

Aqueous phase

• Acidity• Redox potential• Solubility• Salinity• Turbidity• Surface tension

Solid phase

• Infiltration rate• Hydraulic conductivity• Retention capacity• Porosity• Rheological properties• Water repellency

Table 1: Selected Potential Contaminant Induced Irreversible Changes in the Soil and Subsurface: Matrix Configura-

tion and Properties

Five questions to Alex McBratney

Name: Alex McBratneyPosition: Pro-Dean, Professor of Soil ScienceAge: 55Address: The University of Sdyney, Faculty of

Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources,Australia

E-mail: [email protected]

When did you decide to study soil science?A long time ago, I was born very close to the Or-dovician-Silurian boundary. In fact when I was 16. Iwas at high school sitting around deciding whichcourse to do at University. We had a handbook fromthe Universities Central Council on Admissions list-ing all the courses for the 92 universities in theUnited Kingdom at that time. Flicking through thebook I found something called ‘soil science’ thatsomehow intrigued me. I had never heard of it be-fore. I was interested in physics chemistry and geog-raphy, and as part of my rural background, my familyhad always taken part in ploughing competitions -they still do this soil art- so it seemed like a perfectfit to me. So I went off to Aberdeen University tostudy soil science.

2. Who has been your most influential teacher?Perhaps the most difficult of the five questions. I’vehad a number of heroes who’ve influenced megreatly. My high school geography teacher JamesMcLay who first taught me a little about soil and alot about geomorphology, and with whom I still keepin touch. We’re currently doing a little study on thesoil of my home area in Scotland. Of the soil scien-tists the most influential teachers have been E.A.FitzPatrick from the University of Aberdeen whotaught me to think outside the pedological box;

Richard Webster from Rothamsted who taught methe techniques for handling the natural variation ofsoil and to think quantitatively; and the late AlanMoore of the CSIRO Division of Soils who taught meto think deeply and philosophically. There are manyothers from Aberdeen, Rothamsted, CSIRO, here atthe University of Sydney, and elsewhere whom Icould mention. I can see the process of being deeplyinfluenced by, and learning from, one’s own studentsbeing more and more important in my thinking anddevelopment.

3. What do you find most exciting about soil science?The future. Soil science is integral to the sustainablesolution of many of the global issues of today;- foodsecurity, water security, energy security, the effectof climate change and biodiversity. Without soil sci-ence there will be no planet for humanity. We shouldrecognise that we are at the beginning of a goldenera and celebrate it by our growing aspirations andachievements.

4. How would you stimulate teenagers and younggraduates to study soil science? As a teacher I’m always trying to get students tostudy soil science with variable degrees of suc-cess. They do respond positively to the global is-sues I mentioned above. I think however we needto emphasise the vitality and diversity of soil andits crucial rule in the ecosystem and the develop-ment of human civilization. We need more peopletalking about soil out there in the real world.We’re beginning to see that with the soil carbonstory.

5. How do you see the future of soil science?I think I’ve answered this question before some-where (in the Future of Soil Science) in addition tothat statement I would simply like to add that weurgently need to understand soil carbon carboncarbon carbon carbon carbon carbon carbon car-bon carbon carbon carbon carbon carbon carboncarbon carbon carbon carbon carbon carbon car-bon carbon carbon carbon carbon carbon comingcarbon carbon...

N OV E M B E R 2009 13

Five questions to a soil scientist

Five questions to Stephen Nortcliff

Name: Stephen NortcliffPosition: Professor of Soil Science(since 2003)Age: 61 Address: Department of Soil Science,

University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6DW, United Kingdom

E-mail: [email protected]

1. When did you decide to study soil science?When I was an undergraduate at Bristol I becamefascinated with soils, initially in how they were dis-tributed in the landscape, but then on how waterand energy flowed through soils. Within my degreeI chose, whenever possible, courses which involvedsoil science or elements of soil science, and endeav-oured to undertake all my project work on soils andsoil related subjects. My undergraduate project wason soil patterns in an area of Derbyshire, when I wasfirst introduced into the often complex nature of soilvariability.

2. Who has been your most influential teacher?My most influential teacher was probably Len Cur-tis, who as well as being a teacher was also at sometime in his life a soil surveyor. It was Len Curtis whofirst introduced me to soils in the field as an under-graduate and who encouraged me to seek to exploreand understand soil patterns. In my undergraduateyear I was probably the only individual who foundthis soil and landscape relationship so fascinatingand enjoyed the support and enthusiasm providedby Len Curtis.

3. What do you find most exciting about soil science?Throughout my professional life I have not ceased tobe fascinated by the diversity of soils and the diver-sity which occurs within an individual soil. I havebeen fortunate to observe soils in many environ-ments where the nature of the patterns and diver-sity are often different. It is seeking to understandthis diversity and where appropriate manage thesoils taking account of this diversity, which is a majorchallenge which I still enjoy.

4. How would you stimulate teenagers and younggraduates to study soil science? I approach this in two broad areas. The first relatesto my own fascination with the diversity of soils inthe landscape and the differences and similaritieswhich occur in different environmental settings. Thesecond, and this has become more focused with myinvolvement in seeking to develop soil protectionstrategies, is the often critical position in the envi-ronmental context, the role of soils at the interfaceof the atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and lith-osphere. In the development of sustainable landmanagement we must be aware of this role.

5. How do you see the future of soil science?In my opinion Soil Science has ‘turned the corner’ inrecent years. In the final quarter of the 20th centurythere appeared to be a decline in interest in the soil,particularly in the context of agricultural production.In the last few years there has been increasedawareness of the need to understand and managesoil if sustainable agricultural production is to beachieved. Coupled to this re-awakening of the roleof soil in the context of food production, there is alsoan increasing recognition that soils are often criticalin the broader environmental context and it is there-fore imperative that the nature and behaviour ofsoils are understood. This increased awareness ofthe key roles played by soils has been recognized inthe development of soil protection strategies.

Five questions to J.J. Ibánez

Age: J.J. IbánezAge: 54Position: Senior researcher (since 1986)Address: Centro de Investigaciones Sobre

Desertificación (CIDE-CSIC)-UNE-mail: [email protected]

1. When did you decide to study soil science?When I was seventeen years old I started my Univer-sity studies. When studying the subject of geology, I


found a photo and a short commentary on soil pro-files. For no reason, I decided that I would investigatethat issue, but pedology was not taught at my school(Biological Sciences). When I was 23 years old I be-came as PhD student at the CSIC and started investi-gations in biology, biochemistry and soil ecology. Mydissertation (1986) was on landscape ecology. By a se-ries of extremely unlikely circumstances, the sameyear I obtained a senior position in pedology. It seemsthat my vocation was predestined!

2. Who has been your most influential teacher?Professor Antonio Bello (CCMA, CSIC, and EPAAward), a soil ecologist and pathologist, began toteach me everything related to scientific activity. Heencouraged me to be determined, brave and ag-gressive in my research. Professor Francisco Montu-riol years later began my training in pedology. Inmany aspects I have been self-taught (spatial pat-terns analyses, complexity sciences, etc.).

3. What do you find most exciting about soil science?The cryptic nature of the soil system. My academicbackground was that of an ecologist. Soon I realizedthat ecological theory lacked a lot of informationconcerning the great importance of soil. Thus, I triedto explore relationships between ecological com-munities and soils from different viewpoints. I haveoften been misunderstood by both soil scientists andecologists, as I continued in this disciplinary bound-ary. As a soil scientist I understand that we are partlyresponsible for the lack of credibility that we are notin the mainstream of science.

4. How would you stimulate teenagers and younggraduates to study soil science? I am not a teacher in soil science. In my opinion theimportance of soil in agronomy studies can be un-derstand without difficulty by young people. I havenever had problems of young people understandingthe vital importance of soil resources. Possibly, talk-ing as an ecologist it is easier to show the importanceof soil resources because young people like ecologymore than soil science topics, as does current massmedia. As a pedologist I believe that we must teachothers making use of their desires and interests, yetbe rigorous. I do not usually like the style of soilsmanuals and handbooks; they tend to be boring.

5. How do you see the future of soil science?I always thought that to solve external problems firstinternal ones must be solved. I worry about the lack

of constructive self-criticism in our discipline and anylack of credibility must be resolved by ourselves.Currently, there are several alternatives influencinga paradigm shift in pedology: pedometrics thought,soil quality approaches, critical zone earth ap-proaches. Sometimes, we do not listen to eachother, thus we are not united. To achieve success re-quires not only talent, but also willingness to de-velop and maintain open, friendly cooperativedialogs. As of now I do not see enough of this atti-tude in our community of interests.I think that pedometrics will be essential to achievea paradigm shift, however classical pedologists andpedometicians do not listen well to each other. Weneed a constructive interchange of ideas and obtainconsensus to move ahead in pedology. I am opti-mistic for the future.

N OV E M B E R 2009 15

The favourite books of Christian Walter (France)I always liked books and despite all the digital re-sources, I still pay special attention to update thetextbooks of our library in order to integrate themost recent publications in French or English.Choosing favourite books may be done using severalcriteria, e.g. personal profit, teaching interest, qual-ity of the illustrations, etc. In my selection, I paidspecial attention to books which may introduceyoung people to soil. My first choice is «Regards sur le sol » from A. Ruel-lan and M. Dosso, published first in 1993 (Foucher-Aupelf). This book is devoted to soil morphology andincludes a large collection of beautiful pictures fromsoil and landscapes from all over the world. Thisbook explains to beginners how to observe, describeand interpret morphological features. What I partic-ularly appreciated was the clear methodological ap-proach which is especially useful for students.Electronic versions of this book have been later pub-lished and are still available.“Le sol vivant” by Gobat et al. (Presses Polytech-niques et universitaires Romandes) is a textbook firstpublished in 1998, translated as “the living soil” in2004 (Sciences Publishers). I find it a seminal intro-duction to soil biology and related processes. Thisbook is remarkably illustrated and integrates step bystep new knowledge and methods on soil biology ina more general framework of soil knowledge. To-gether with the book of Lavelle and Spain “Soil Ecol-ogy” published in 2001 (Kluwer), they constitute anin-depth contribution suitable for disseminatingknowledge well beyond the community of soil biol-ogists and ecologists.My third choice is “Geostatistics for environmentalScientists” published by Webster and Oliver in 2001(Wiley), which is an upgraded version of a previoustextbook published in 1990. This book is a good in-troduction to statistical methods applied to soil stud-ies, with a particular emphasis on spatial issues. Ilearned personally a lot studying this book and I stillstrongly recommend as a reference to my students.

The favourite books of Anthony Young (UK)For clear, concise writing, without jargon, G. V. JacksSoil (Nelson, Edinburgh, UK, 1954) comes first. Eventhe title could not be more concise! Then as a for-mer soil surveyor, allow me to class as a ‘book’ oneof the classic maps and accompanying reports. Ge-offrey Milne’s A provisional soil map of East Africa(Amani Memoirs, Tanganyika, 1936) is a mind-blow-ing achievement from the days before air photogra-phy, a huge addition to soil science and geographicalknowledge.Harder to pick number three. Nye and Greenland,The soil under shifting cultivation (CAB, Harpenden,UK, 1960), still being cited as a basic source on or-ganic matter? One of the first Soil map of Africacompiled by Julius d’Hoore (CCTA, Lagos, 1964)? Theclarity of Rudy Dudal’s Dark clay soils of tropical andsubtropical regions (FAO, Rome, 1965)? Peter Ahn’sWest African soils (Oxford UP, 1970), obviously writ-ten by someone with a close field knowledge of soilsand their agricultural management? Or PhilippeDuchaufour’s Precis de pédologie (Masson, Paris,1977), comprehensive but always clear?No, let me settle for another classic of good writing,Robin Clarke’s The study of the soil in the field(Clarendon, Oxford, UK), first published in 1936 andso readable that it ran to five editions over a periodof 35 years.

The favourite books of Alain Ruellan (France)I am a pedologist, mainly interested by the study andunderstanding of soil morphology. I have been for-med and influenced by teachers and researchersthat have worked, all around the world, about soilmantle constituents and structures at the diversescales of their organization and functioning. Asexamples I can underline three books that I considersignificant of the main steps of soil morphology stu-dies and use, since forty years.

Favourite Soil Science Books


The first one is the French book of G. Bocquier (Ors-tom, 1973): “Origin and evolution of two Chadiantropical soil toposequences – Biogeodynamic inter-pretation”. This book is a masterly demonstrationabout the existence of space and time relationshipsand dynamics inside soils covers: soil cover organi-zations and functioning are vertical and lateral; thehistory of a soil cover is a succession of soil mineralsand structures, that we can discover looking at thespace scale. Reading this book we learn very muchabout how to use together morphological and bio-geochemical methodologies.The second example is the book of D. Nahon (JohnWiley & Sons, 1991): “Introduction to the petrologyof soils and chemical weathering”. This book waswritten on the base of many scientific studiesmade, mainly, in Africa, but also in Brazil, Austra-lia, France.... From rocks to soil, vertically and late-rally, the aim of this book is to explain how to studyand interpret, macro and micro alterites and soilsmorphologies: transformation of the mineralconstituents, disappearance and appearance of oldand new structures, dynamical interpretations. Thisbook is a large demonstration about the soil sys-tems existence: how to discover and how to un-derstand the soil systems, base for the good use ofthe soil covers.The third book is quite different, but also very im-portant for the future of soil use: it is the “WorldReference Base for Soil Resources – Introduction”written by J.A. Deckers, F.0. Nachtergale, 0.C.Spaargaren (Eds.)“ (Acco, 1998). This book is anice demonstration that it is possible to constructa real international soil reference base where wecan find all the soils of the world, presented firstby their morphology. WRB represent an impor-tant step for soil science and soil use. My“dream”, for the next future, is that the WRBconstruction will be continued with a more im-portant introduction of the soils covers existence: that is, how to use the knowledge presented inthe two first books, for the future construction ofa “WRB for Soils Covers”?

N OV E M B E R 2009 17

10/08/2009 is the 75th anniversary of Prof. Dr. VictorO. Targulian – the first winner of the DokuchaevAward of the IUSS, the Honorary Member of theIUSS, and the Vice-President of the Dokuchaev SoilScience Society, Russia.Victor O. Targulian was born in Moscow. He gradu-ated from Timiryazev Agricultural Academy. He gothis first experience in soil science in the DokuchaevSoil Institute, where the well-known pedologists ofthe 1950-1970s – Professors Ivanova, Rode, Rozov,Fridland, Gerasimov were actively discussing prob-lems of zonality, soil genesis and pedogeneticprocesses along with compiling the main nationalsoil map – the State Soil Map of the USSR, scale1:1M. This was a wonderful school for a young spe-cialist; moreover, he did extensive field work in veryremote areas of the Arctic, East Siberia and Far Eastfor the survey on unexplored soils there for thismap. He loved this kind of activities with overcom-ing many difficulties, wandering in uninhabitedtaiga or tundra lands, hunting for food, rafting ondangerous mountainous rivers. In 1967 he has got the degree of a full doctor (Doc-tor of Sciences, Geography), without the first Candi-date (Ph.D.) stage, for his comprehensivemonograph “Pedogenesis and weathering in cold

humid areas” (published in Russian in 1971). Thisstudy made a revolution in understanding the soilgenesis in cold climates of the world. The worldwide recognition came to Prof. V.Targulianin 1974 during the X International Congress of SoilScience in Moscow for the unique experience of im-plementing the hierarchical morphological study ofa profile. He organized a team of specialists to per-form a comprehensive analytical and morphologicalstudy of a soddy-podzolic soil (Albeluvisol) nearMoscow. The results were published in two volumes;the discussion on the pit lasted for a whole day, andmany famous pedologists – Ph.Duchaufour, J.Aubert,E.Schlichting, M.Glazovskaya, A.Rode, R.Dudal andmany others participated in it. Since 1980s after his trip to the tropical islands ofPacific, V.Targulian attended many international con-ferences and congresses, where his non-traditionalideas about well-known issues and their emotionalpresentation attracted many advanced soil scien-tists, and in 1989-90 he managed to prepare to-gether with R.Arnold, I.Szabolc, R.Dudal, D.Yaalonand many other prominent specialists the book“Global Soil Change” (1990). As an internationallyknown person, he was frequently invited to give lec-ture courses in many countries (France, Italy, Aus-tria, USA, Bulgaria, Poland) on the problems ofpedology and soil functioning, its interaction withthe environment and society.From the detailed studies of pedogenesis in humidcold and hot areas Victor Targulian moved to con-ceptual and paleopedological issues in his own andcollective research. Most interesting in the formerwere his famous paradigms “soil-moment and soil-memory” (together with his friend I.Sokolov); char-acteristic time in soils; the approaches to thepedosphere as a reactor, regulator and memory ofbiosphere interactions; perception of the soil as asystem and its self-regulation. In 1983 he publishedthe paper “Exogenesis and Pedogenesis: Expansionof the Theoretical Basis of Soil Science” where heelucidated the ability of Dokuchaev soil science tobe used as an approach for study of other planets’surface bodies – it was 25 years before the term“astropedology” appeared. Later on, his permanent

Professor Victor Targulian is 75!


interest to soil evolution and time as a factor of soilformation brought him to the investigation of veryold soils – Permian, Carboniferous, not unani-mously accepted as soils by other specialists. Another astonishing feature of scientific activitiesof Victor Targulian is his ability to involve many col-leagues and disciples into joint projects to solve aproblem. The best results of such activity in recentyears are the monographs: “Elemenetary Soil-Forming Processes” and “Soil Memory”. This fea-ture also explains his success in the field ofteaching at the Faculty of Soil science inLomonosov Moscow State University, where his lec-tures on basic problems of our science always at-tract people irrespective of their age. His formerstudents are high professionals now. Victor Targu-lian is thought to be an informal leader amongpedologists in Russia and also a person who “con-structs a bridge” between the national soil scienceand up-to-date world experience.The world community of soil scientists wishesmany years of healthy and creative life to VictorTargulian.

N OV E M B E R 2009 19

Professor Dr Stanisław Moskal (1921-2008)President of the Polish Soil Science Society (1987 - 1995)

Prof. Dr Stanisław Moskal, a retired researchworker and academic lecturer at the AgriculturalChemistry Department of the Warsaw Universityof Life Sciences (SGGW), died on September 21st,2008 at the age of 87. He was well – respected inscientific activities and as well as being a well-liked teacher and tutor of many generations ofstudents, research workers and other academicteacher.

Prof. S. Moskal was born on November 10st inKrosno. Immediately after the end of the Higher Ed-ucation School, he studied at the Faculty of Agricul-tural at SGGW (1945-1950). He started work at theAgricultural Chemistry Department at SGGW (1948),in 1959 he obtained a doctorate in agricultural, in1965 he completed his postdoctoral dissertation. He

was appointed to the position of associate profesorin 1974.His scientific output considered of mor than 100 ar-ticles, published mainly in scientific journals. Apartfrom his, he was the author of more than ten chap-ters in academic books, mor than ten academiccours books as well as other materials. The subjectmatter of his research was innovative both in Polandand abroad, this being a result of his numerous vis-its to scientific centers in many countries.Prof. S. Moskal conduct research using radioactiveisotops and he participated in the creation of thefirst Polish Agricultural Isotope Laboratory of thePolish Academy of Sciences (1956) which was lo-cated at the Agricultural Chemistry Department ofSGGW. To extend his knowledge of the applicationradioactive isotopes he took several interships withforeign scientific centres in Belgium, Netherlands So-viet Union, England and USA. In the 70s and 80s hewas a coordinator or participant of international re-search projects.Prof. S. Moskal scientific activity centred around thefollowing issues: assessment of the methods for de-termining available phosphorus, natural radioactivityof soil and taking up the radioactive isotopes byplants, content of mobile aluminium in the soil andinfluence of this element on the availability of vari-ous nutrients. The research with phosphorus wasused as the subject matter of six doctoral disserta-tions under his supervision.Prof. S. Moskal for many years worked on a volun-tary basis at the Polish Teacher Union and the Asso-ciation of SGGW Graduates. He was the Head of theAssociation in 1977-2001 and then in 2002 he wasapointed an Honorary President of this Association.He also performed more voluntary work in variousorganizations outside of the SGGW. For example: inthe years 1975-1988 he was the Head of the Agri-cultural Commision for Isotopes in the Polish Acad-emy of Sciences, in the years 1984-1996 he was anumber of General Committee of the InternationalFertilizer Centre and from 1972 he was repeatedlyselected to the Committee on Soil Science and Agri-cultural Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sci-ences. He participated for the longest period and in

Obituaries


the most active way for the Polish Society of Soil Sci-ence. In 1987-1995 he was the President of the So-ciety and in 1995 he became the Honorary Presidentof the Polish Society of Soil Science.These extensive actions show that he was a well-known and highly regarded organizer of Polish sci-entific activities, and he was meny times decoratedand awarded for his achievements. The distinctionshe was awarded included: Order of Polonia Restitutakinght’s Cross, Medal of the Commission of NationalEducation, M. Oczapowski Medal and others.He will remain in our memories forever as an exam-ple to be followed. Academic society has lost an ex-cellent scientist, a voluntary worker and a man ofconsiderable intellectual stature.

Stanisław Mercik, Warsaw, Poland

Emeritus Professor Carolus (Karel) Sys(1923 – 2009)

Dr. ir. Carolus, emeritus professor of Soil Science inthe Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, passedaway on October 1, 2009 at the age of 85. He wasborn in Zande (West-Flanders, Belgium) on Christ-mas-day, December 25, 1923. Being son of a farmer,his parents certainly not directed him towards uni-

versity studies. Instead they depicted for him a ca-reer as a cattle tradesman. However, when duringWorld War II, young men were summoned to workfor the war industries, he decided not to go that waybut to enroll at the Agricultural University in Ghent,where he obtained the degree of agricultural engi-neer, tropical soil science, in 1949.

In the same year ir. C. Sys was selected by the Bel-gian administration for a job in the former BelgianCongo. He began working as a field soil surveyer atINEAC (Institut National pour l’Etude Agronomiqueau Congo Belge), pioneering the soils of the centralpart of Africa. He participated in regional soil sur-veys in different parts of the former Belgian Congoand in Burundi. In 1956, he was appointed as Chefdu Groupe Cartographie et Prospection de la Divisiond’Agrologie of this institute, in charge of the super-vision and co-ordination of the soil survey. In thisfunction, he together with his collaborators, elabo-rated the INEAC system of soil classification for Cen-tral Africa. Under the leadership of Sys, muchemphasis was laid by the Belgian soil scientists oncharacteristics easily recognizable in the field, suchas the presence of pseudosands in the poor Ferral-sols and the presence of shiny clay skins in the muchricher Ferrisols. Many of these criteria were latertaken over in the international classification systems,such as Soil Taxonomy or the FAO legend. At thattime, Sys was also a member of the committee incharge of the establishment of a Soil Map of Africa,and he compiled the first soil map of Congo andRuanda-Urundi at scale 1:5M.In 1960, Sys returned back to Belgium and workedfor three years, until 1963, as chief cartographer atthe Belgian Centre for Soil Survey and as researcherin the Laboratory of Physical Geography and Re-gional Pedology under the direction of ProfessorRené Tavernier. At the same time, he supervised soilsurvey work and was in charge of the study of thesoil suitability for crop growing in Belgium. Ir. Syswas awarded a Ph.D. in Agronomy in 1961 at theAgricultural University of Ghent on the thesis “SoilGenesis in the High-Katanga”. In 1963, Dr. ir. C. Sys, was appointed associate pro-fessor, and in 1981 full professor at the State Uni-versity Ghent, teaching regional pedology (mainly oftropical and subtropical regions) and land evaluationat the Faculty of Sciences (International TrainingCentre for Post-Graduate Soil Scientists, ITC-Ghent)and at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences. In thisfunction he was responsible for the scientific educa-

N OV E M B E R 2009 21

tion of numerous pedologists from developing coun-tries as well as from developed countries all over theworld. Initially his research was oriented to the studyof soil-forming processes of tropical and arid soils,but since the 1970s his interest shifted mainly toland evaluation. His green books on “Land Evalua-tion” published by the former General Administra-tion for Development Cooperation in Brussels arewell-known and are still used and cited by scientists.Around that time, Professor Sys’s career took an in-ternational course and his reputation as a leadingand influential soil scientist grew through this pe-riod. Since 1963, he was consultant or scientific su-pervisor of many overseas projects for the BelgianAdministration for Development Co-operation, theFlemish Interuniversity Council, the FAO and formany other Belgian and international organizationsand consultant bureaus. In Africa, he realized soilsurvey and land evaluation projects in Morocco,Egypt, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Chad, IvoryCoast, Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Democratic Republicof Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Zambia. InNicaragua, he planned and supervised the soil sur-vey of the Costa Atlántica between the Rio Grandede Matagalpa and the Rio Escondido. In Asia he par-ticipated in soil research and soil survey work inLebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Thailand, Malaysia,Indonesia and China.From 1968 until 1981 Professor Sys was SecretaryGeneral of the Belgian Soil Science Society and edi-tor-in-chief of “Pedologie”, the journal of the BelgianSoil Science Society. His wide-spread expertise in thefield of land evaluation was acknowledged in 1978during the World Congress in Edmonton, Canada byhis election as chairman of the Commission “SoilTechnology” of the International Society of Soil Sci-ence (ISSS). He chaired this commission until 1982.In 1984, he succeeded Professor Tavernier as direc-tor of the ITC-Ghent and in 1987 he was electedpresident of the Belgian Royal Academy of OverseasSciences. Throughout his career his main solicitude has alwaysbeen to carry out scientific research leading to prac-tical applications. Hereby he was particularly con-cerned about the possibilities to apply his findingsin the sometimes precarious working conditions ofthe third world. Therefore his advices on soil man-agement were always very much appreciated by allthe people working in the agricultural sector in de-veloping countries.His working capacity is illustrated by numerous sci-entific articles and technical reports, the many M.Sc.

and Ph.D. theses prepared under his supervision orwith his collaboration, his activities in the Belgianand International Soil Science Societies and his po-sition as director of the ITC-Ghent. Despite retire-ment in 1989, Sys remained interested in theInternational Training Centre and in the work of theLaboratory of Soil Science, especially in their activi-ties in Central Africa.

Eric Van Ranst Department of Geology and Soil Science (WE13),Laboratory of Soil Science, Ghent UniversityKrijgslaan 281 (S8), B-9000 Gent, Belgium

Luis A. León Sarmiento(1927-2009)

Luis A. León, who died on June 27/2009 at the age of82, was one the most outstanding Latin Americansoil scientists over a period of four decades. He wasborn in Bogotá, Colombia, on September 12, 1927.He obtained a B.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineeringfrom the National University of Colombia and onleaving the university he joined the laboratory of theSoils Program of the Colombian Agricultural Institute(ICA), based at the Palmira Experimental Station. In1963 he obtained a Ph.D. in Soil Chemistry from theUniversity of California Riverside and back to Colom-bia was designed National Director of the ICA’s SoilsResearch Program.

In 1978 he joined the staff of the International Fer-tilizer Development Center to develop research onphosphorus and phosphate rocks of Latin America inthe International Center of Tropical Agriculture inPalmira, Colombia. He spent several years with this


international organization and play a pivotal role inthe phosphate rocks scientific development. He alsoworked as a consultant for the Texas Gulf, RaleighN.C. in natural phosphates use; for CYMMIT, in CIAT-Palmira, working in the different scientific soil proj-ects for South America of this international centerfor 2 years; also for Cenipalma, the Colombian re-search center for the oil palm and finally He was tospend the rest of his professional career workingwith the newest University of the Pacific on theColombian Pacific Coast where he developed scien-tific love for soil sustainability in the students of thismarginated and poor region of Colombia.He carried on research on soil chemistry and soil fer-tility and also teaching at the National University ofColombia. Through his long and intense engagementin both research and teaching Dr. León has had anenormous impact on development in the science ofsoils chemistry and fertility. He is author of morethan 200 research papers, numerous chapters inhandbooks and meeting/congresses memories.As a counselor of graduate students many of themwere guided towards an advanced degree in SoilChemistry and Soil Fertility and many others becamewell known researchers and university professorsthemselves. He was cofounder and a long-standing member ofthe Colombian Soil Science Society. He was its pres-ident from 1971 to 1975 and from 1979 to 1981.Also was president of the Latin American Soil Sci-ence Society from 1973 to 1975.Dr. León has received numerous honors and awards.Among other things, was an Honorary Member ofthe Colombian, Peruvian and of the InternationalSoil Science Societies. He will be remembered by col-leagues and friends for his important contributionsto the development of soil science.

Prof. Dr. rer. hort. Dr. hc. Karl Heinrich Hartge (1926-2009)On the 11th of June 2009, Professor Dr. rer. hort., Dr.hc. Karl Heinrich Hartge died in his house in Garb-sen, Germany, shortly after his 83rd birthday after amore than fulfilled scientific life. He has left not onlyhis family but also the international soil science com-munity and uncounted colleagues and friends allover the world sad and deeply depressed. Born in Dorpat (Estonia) on the 18th of March 1926,Karl Heinrich Hartge finished highschool in 1946 inDiepholz/Lower Saxony and graduated at the Tech-

nical University of Hannover in Horticulture in 1955.His extraordinary scientific career started at the In-stitute of Soil Science, Hannover, where he earnedhis PhD (Dr. rerum hortorum) in 1958 in the instituteof the famous Prof. Dr. Dr. hc. Paul Schachtschabel.

In 1963, Karl Heinrich Hartge finished his Habilita-tion Thesis about the effect of soil structure on poresize distribution, a subject which in those days wasmostly unknown. In 1965 he was appointed Profes-sor of Soil Physics at the Technical University of Han-nover, where he worked until his retirement in 1991.He concentrated as a highly gifted researcher,teacher, and extraordinary “doctor father” withgreat enthusiasm on the analyses and documenta-tion of soil physical properties and processes instructured saturated and unsaturated soils undervarious climatic and land use conditions. He pub-lished more than 150 reviewed papers and un-counted book chapters. He developed and wrote 2books on soil physics in German, which are still thestandard textbooks for students in the various soilrelated education systems. The 4th edition of thebook, Soil Physical Experiments and Measurements(Bodenphysikalisches Praktikum), was just recentlypublished, and he was one of the active authors. Healso prepared the rewriting and further conceptualimprovement of the 4th edition of Introduction toSoil Physics (in German), in order to update the sci-entific content and its documentation. His internationally accepted and honoured out-

N OV E M B E R 2009 23

standing knowledge, which was not only in soilphysics but also reached far beyond this discipline, isdocumented in numerous chapters in various books,as well as in the famous textbook, SchefferSchachtschabel: Lehrbuch der Bodenkunde (Soil Sci-ence textbook), which was co-authored (chapter:soil physics) by him for 32 years. He had restless interests in soil scientific questions.His excellent analysis of problems or possibilities todefine for soil physics a capacity/intensity parame-ter, which would gain an identical acceptance in soilscience like the pH value in soil chemistry, domi-nated his data analyses up to the very last days. Itwas always impressive for all of us, when he under-lined his new findings with hand drawings and cor-responding hand written information and discussedin great detail the new insights. Fourteen PhD students were privileged to be guidedand educated by Karl Heinrich Hartge and to gaintheir scientific background from him. He was a realpromoter and doctor father in the best sense for allof them. His presence and his wisdom, his encour-aging information, helpful discussions, corrections,and recommendations occurred in an outstandingscientific and social atmosphere and guaranteednew scientific insights, as well as formed the basisfor their own careers as professors in Kiel, Hannover,and Valdivia/Chile or on the advisory boards withinvarious research and administrative organisationsand research institutes. Professor Hartge can be without any doubt calledthe father of soil physics in Germany, which is alsodocumented by his enormous activity and guidanceof additional research groups initiated by him.Theirsuccess is based on his fundamental knowledge ofsoils and their physical processes.Besides his intense research and ambitious teach-

ing, Professor Hartge also found time to serve theGerman Soil Science Society as the Chairman for SoilPhysics and Soil Technology and as their Presidentfor 4 years. Elected 1982 in New Delhi/India as thePresident of the International Soil Science Societyfor 4 years, he organised the International Congressin Hamburg in 1986. In the same year he wasawarded the prestigious Dokuchaev Medal throughthe Russian Soil Science Society. He earned there-after also numerous honorary memberships fromGermany, the International Union of Soil Science,and the Institute of Agrophysics, Poland, for his out-standing contributions to soil science and untiringactivity for these soil communities. After his retirement in 1991, he became the foun-

dation director of the Center for Agricultural andLandscape Research (ZALF) in Müncheberg, Ger-many, which he reorganized after the reunificationof Germany. He also served as a guest Professorfor Soil Physics in Rostock, Germany, and Vienna,Austria. On the 18th of November 2005, Prof. Dr. Karl Hein-rich Hartge received the Honorary Certificate (Drhonoris causa) of the Christian Albrechts Universityzu Kiel in recognition of his outstanding scientific ca-reer as a soil scientist, researcher, and teacher. For his most prestigious award, the President of theFederal Republic of Germany, Dr. Horst Köhler, hon-oured him on the 3rd of April 2009 with the GrandCross 1st Class of the Order of Merit of the FederalRepublic of Germany (Bundesverdienstkreuz ErsterKlasse der Bundesrepublik Deutschland) in recogni-tion of his outstanding scientific achievements aswell as for his social activities for the Baltic commu-nity in the widest sense. Karl Heinrich Hartge was for more than 50 yearsmarried to his wife Uta, who survives him. It isdoubtless that his outstanding success in science, so-cial activities, and education of generations of stu-dents, PhD students, and co-workers is based on heruntiring support. Moreover, many soil scientists inthe world are thankful for her help and understand-ing. Three children and 3 grandchildren were sup-ported and promoted by him as their best father andgrandfather.The German Soil Science Society, the internationalsoil science community, his colleagues, PhD stu-dents, and friends bow in thankfulness to Prof.Hartge and will keep him in honoured memory.

Prof. Dr. Rainer HornPresident German Soil Science Society

Peter Nye(1921–2009)Peter Hague Nye FRS, Reader in Soil Science andEmeritus Fellow of St Cross College, University of Ox-ford, died on 13 February 2009, aged 87.Peter Nye was one of the foremost figures in plantand soil sciences internationally for 40 years. Heread chemistry at Oxford (Balliol College, Domus Ex-hibitioner) and took a postgraduate course organ-ised by the Colonial Agricultural Service atCambridge (Christ’s College) and elsewhere. He thenspent 13 years in West Africa, initially as the Agri-


cultural Chemist for the Gold Coast, then as Lecturerin Soil Science at University College of Ibadan, Nige-ria, and Senior Lecturer in Soil Science at the Uni-versity of Ghana. The work he did there led to,amongst other publications, his seminal book withDJ Greenland ‘The Soil Under Shifting Cultivation’(CABI, 1961), an outstanding example of what canbe achieved with minimal research resources clev-erly deployed. It is still widely cited.He returned to Oxford in 1961, via a year at the In-ternational Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, suc-ceeding RK Schofield as Reader in Soil Science. Hecontinued studies begun by Schofield on solute dif-fusion in soil, and established a theory of diffusion insoils which became the foundation for his work onthe mechanisms of solute uptake by plant roots. Thisculminated in his book with PB Tinker ‘Solute Move-ment in the Soil-Root System’ (Blackwell, 1977, withsecond edition, OUP, 2000). This is still one of themost influential books across the whole of plant andsoil sciences.

Nye’s approach to research was no-nonsense. His labcontained no fancy instruments. He aimed to baseeverything as far as possible on first principles, andhe had a strong conviction that it should always bepossible to understand a problem or process wellenough to develop predictive, mathematical modelsof it. These were then tested to destruction withsimple experiments with all model input parametersderived independently. He was a follower of KarlPopper and a firm believer in Occam’s razor.Nye was Visiting Professor at the University of NorthCarolina at Raleigh (1958), Visiting Professor at Cor-nell University (1974, 1981, Messenger Lectures1989), Commonwealth Visiting Professor at the Uni-versity of Western Australia (1979), Visiting Profes-sor at the Royal Veterinary and AgriculturalUniversity Copenhagen (1990) and Honorary Re-search Professor at the Scottish Crops Research In-stitute (1995–2000). He was President of the BritishSociety of Soil Science (1968–69), a Member of theCouncil of the International Society of Soil Science

N OV E M B E R 2009 25

Picture caption: Peter Nye with members of the Oxford Soil Science Laboratory circa 1983. Nye is sixth from the left.

To his left are Bob White, Philip Beckett, Ros Haigh, Guy Kirk, Rachhpal Singh, James McDuff, X, Frank Greene, Pete

Darrah, Robin Kneale, Gwyneth Jenkins, Andrew Ameloko, X, X, Raul Ponce-Hernandez, Mike Hedley. Far left is Hilary

Moorby and in front of Nye is Jeni Tree. Missing is Siobhan Staunton.

(1968–74) and a Governor of the National VegetableResearch Station (1972–87). He became a Fellow ofthe Royal Society in 1987.Nye was a keen sportsman. He gained half blues forsquash and tennis at Oxford, and played cricket forthe national teams of Nigeria and Ghana. He also dida lot of sailing, cycling and walking.He was a gentleman of the old school. He was tire-lessly kind and polite with students and junior col-leagues. He never put himself forward, andeverything he said was worth hearing. His writing isa marvel of clarity and elegance. He leaves a hugelegacy for the plant and soil sciences. He was a giant.He suffered from poor health in his later years butbore this with great courage and no complaint. Hewas married to Phyllis Mary Nye (née Quenault) for55 years and had three children and six grandchil-dren.

Guy Kirk

Pieter Buringh(1918 – 2009)After a long and active life Dr ir Piet Buringh passedaway on 27th April 2009 at the age of 91 years. Hiscareer centred around the study of soils in the field,their geography, morphology and classification, aswell as their agricultural use potential. He studied atWageningen Agricultural University, where Prof.C.H.Edelman was one of his teachers. Buringh’s ca-reer included a chair at the same university. He wasan efficient manager, a devoted scientist and a giftedteacher.Buringh’s career started in 1947 at the NetherlandsSoil Survey Institute (StiBoKa) where he was ap-pointed as secretary and worked closely with the di-rector, Prof. Edeleman. His doctoral thesis1 waswritten during this period in which he was activelyengaged in soil surveys in the Netherlands. In 1955,he was appointed by the Government of Iraq as aconsultant for soil survey and land evaluation. Heparticipated in various soil survey projects in Iraq,the main emphasis being on the study of saline andalkali soils, their origin, distribution and use poten-tial. The results of three years work in Iraq were pub-lished2 in a book on Iraqi soils, with an exploratorysoil map.After his return to the Netherlands in 1958 Dr Bur-ingh was appointed Head of the Soils Department ofthe International Training Centre for Aerial Survey at

Delft (now at Enschede). He was a keen promoter ofthe interpretation of aerial photographs as a tool insoil surveys. In 1960, Buringh joined the Board of Di-rectors of a Dutch consulting firm, ‘De NederlandseHeidemaatschappij’. He worked in several projects,both in the Netherlands and overseas. From 1956 to1974 he was Deputy Secretary General of the Inter-national Society of Soil Science (ISSS, now IUSS).In 1964, Dr Buringh was offered a chair in tropicalsoil science at Wageningen Agricultural University.Next to teaching he initiated the Training Project inPedology which was meant to give students with amajor in soil science an opportunity to get practicalexperience. The Training Project was to be based ina tropical or subtropical country, in cooperation withlocal university and government departments. Theproject has two main aims: offering a study area tostudents from Wageningen and the host country,and making the results of the investigations availableto host country authorities. The first training projectwas based in the Konya Basin of Central Turkey.Some 25 Dutch students and a number of Turkishstudents participated in the project together withseveral members of the teaching staff of Wagenin-gen University. Three staff members received a PhDon work in Konya. To the students in this projectProf. Buringh was an inspiring and highly appreciatedmentor.

In the 1960s and 1970s an increasing number of for-eign students came to Wageningen University. Tropicalsoil science was often an important part of their studyprogramme. Buringh’s concise review of tropical andsubtropical soils3, first published in 1968 and serving asa textbook for his lectures, became increasingly pop-ular in the tropical world. The third and last editionwas published in 1979 and the book was translated inseveral languages, including Arabic. The Training Proj-ect in Turkey continued after Buringh’s retirement andbecame increasingly multidisciplinary. Subsequentstudy areas were in Kenya and Costa Rica.


Buringh’s work as a professor was interrupted from1971 to 1975. He was appointed Chairman of theBoard of Directors of Wageningen University. In a pe-riod of major change in organization and study pro-grammes, the university was in need of anexperienced manager who also was a member of theteaching staff.From 1975 until his retirement in 1981 Buringh fo-cused his attention increasingly on worldwide prob-lems of food production in relation to land potentialand (changing) climatic conditions. Retirement meant fewer obligations, but Piet Bur-ingh remained interested in world food problems,and he busied himself with agricultural history, reli-gion and society in the Middle East, which regionwas close to his heart.

Wouter BlokhuisTitus de Meester---------------------------1 P.Buringh, 1951. Over de bodemgesteldheid rondom Wa-

geningen (Soil conditions in the environments of Wagenin-

gen). Versl. Landbouwk. Onderz. 57.4. Staatsdrukkerij,

‘s-Gravenhage.2 P.Buringh. 1960. Soils an soil conditions in Iraq (with soil

map). Ministry of Agriculture, Bagdad, Iraq.3 P.Buringh, 1979. Introduction to the study of soils in tropi-

cal and subtropical regions. 3rd edition, Pudoc, Wagenin-

gen (ISBN 90-220-0691-3)

Prof. Pan Ming Huang(1934-2009)Prof. P.M. Huang, Professor Emeritus of Soil Scienceat the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon,Canada passed away on September 13, 2009. He was born in Taiwan on September 2, 1934, andafter growing up there and graduating in AgriculturalChemistry from the National Chung Hsing University,moved to the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg in1961. It was there that he met Lin, the lovely youngwoman who was to become his wife. He moved onto the University of Wisconsin at Madison uponcompleting his Masters in 1962, studying for his PhDwith Prof. M. L. Jackson, one of the world’s mosthighly regarded soil scientists. Prof. Huang and prof.Jackson worked well together, developing a warmfriendship that continued for decades. Prof. Huangreceived his Ph.D. degree in Soil Science in 1965 andin the same year traveled to Saskatoon having ac-cepted a position in the Department of Soil Science

at the University of Saskatchewan. In 1966 he andLin were married. Lin has been a wonderful com-panion and support for him. They have two children:Daniel and Crystal.

Prof. Huang was a leading international authority onenvironmental soil chemistry, with emphasis on min-eral colloids and organo-mineral complexes, their re-actions with nutrients and pollutants in soils andwaters and the impact on ecosystem health. He haspioneered extensive chemical, spectroscopic, and ul-tramicroscopic research on the formation mecha-nisms of short-range ordered (poorly crystalline)mineral colloids which are extremely reactive in gov-erning the accumulation, transport, and bioavail-ability of nutrients and pollutants in theenvironment. He has done groundbreaking work inestablishing mineral catalysis mechanisms of trans-formations of biomolecules such as sugars, phenoliccompounds and amino acids, and the resulting for-mation of humic substances which are essential formaintaining and for enhancing the productivity ofthe land and are also vital in influencing the dynam-ics and fate of environmental pollutants. Further, hiscutting-edge research has advanced the world’sknowledge on the chemistry and behavior of vitaland toxic inorganic ions and organic compounds insoils and freshwaters and their impact on agricul-tural sustainability and ecosystem protection. In Professor Huang’s research on the impact of toxicmaterials in the environment, he emphasized theharmful effects of ions such as cadmium, arsenic,and mercury in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.Because these ions can be taken up by freshwaterbiota and crop plants, the significance of his work

N OV E M B E R 2009 27

has extended to human and animal health. For ex-ample, his laboratory was the first in the world toshow the ability of manganese oxides to converttoxic arsenite to much less toxic arsenate throughabiotic catalysis. Further, because of substantial up-take of cadmium by cereal crops, his research hascontributed to the development of land resourcemanagement strategies to enhance the quality ofCanadian grains and their competitiveness in inter-national markets.His research accomplishments, embodied in over300 refereed publications, of which nine were pub-lished in Nature (London). Furthermore, he has writ-ten 2 books, edited 17 books, and successfullytrained and inspired Ph.D. and M.Sc. students (morethan 60) and postdoctoral fellows (45), and hostednumerous international visiting scientists. Besideshis significant contributions to the training of highlyqualified personnel and outstanding research ac-complishments in fundamental soil and environ-mental sciences, as founding Chair of both theWorking Group “Interactions of Soil Minerals withOrganic Components and Microorganisms” andCommission 2.5 Soil Physical/Chemical/Biological In-terfacial Reactions of the International Union of SoilSciences, prof. Huang was instrumental in promot-ing worldwide research leading to integration ofknowledge on mineral colloids, organic matter, andmicroorganisms, and its impact on agricultural pro-duction, environmental sustainability, and ecosys-tem health.In 2000 prof. Huang served as Editor of Soil Chem-istry section of the Handbook of Soil Science, butsince 2008 he was serving as Editor-in-Chief of thesecond edition of the this handbook, which assem-bles the core of knowledge from all fields encom-passed within the discipline of Soil Science and is,thus, a comprehensive reference work on the disci-pline of Soil Science as practiced today. Further, Prof.Huang has served as Titular Member of the Interna-tional Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC)and has been Series Editor of the IUPAC Book Series“Biophysico-Chemical Processes in EnvironmentalSystems” to promote research and education onphysical, chemical, and biological interfacial interac-tions in the environment on a global scale.He has developed and taught courses in soil physi-cal chemistry and mineralogy, soil analytical chem-istry, and ecological toxicology. He has served onnumerous national and international scientific andacademic committees. He also has served as a mem-ber of many editorial boards such as the Soil Science

Society of America Journal, Geoderma, Chemos-phere, Water, Air and Soil Pollution, Soil Science andPlant Nutrition, and Pedosphere. He received theDistinguished Researcher Award from the Universityof Saskatchewan (1997) and the Soil Science Re-search Award from the Soil Science Society of Amer-ica (2000). He was a Fellow of the Canadian Societyof Soil Science (1985), the Soil Science Society ofAmerica (1985), the American Society of Agronomy(1985), the American Association for the Advance-ment of Science (1998), and the World InnovationFoundation (2001). He was Honorary Professor of sixChinese Universities.Prof. Huang was an eminent scholar, a great educa-tor, a man of vision and extraordinary leadership. Hewas a teacher appreciated for his organization andthoroughness, his passion for science, and for hishigh expectations. Most of his students and col-leagues mention the decisive influence he had ontheir careers.

Antonio ViolanteUniversità di Napoli Federico II, Italy


10th International Meeting onSoils with Mediterranean Type of Climate BeirutLebanon 23-26 June 2009

The 10th International Meeting on Soils withMediterranean Type of Climate was held in Beirut,Lebanon 23-26 June 2009. It was jointly organizedby the International Union of Soil Science and na-tional Council for Scientific Research-Center of Re-mote Sensing (CNRS-CRS. The meeting was attendedby 45 experts from Kuwait, Iran, Jordan, Syria,Lebanon, Alger, Tunisia, Morocco, Spain, Germany,France, Italy, China, Canada and experts from re-gional and international organization ACSAD andICARDA. The book of extended abstract contained 54original works. The program was spread over fourdays. During the opening ceremony Dr MouinHamzé, the Secretary General CNRS, Dr Ahmet Mer-mut the Chairman of the International WorkingGroup on Soils with Mediterranean Type of Climate(IUSS), Dr Khaled Be Ramdan, Deputy DG ACSAD, DrAli Moumen the FAO Representative in Lebanon, andDr Mohmoud El Solh the DG of ICARDA all presented

fact and figures about current regional and interna-tional issues in soil science. The first session was devoted to the use of remotesensing and GIS in land resources studies, landdegradation, mass movement and soil erosion.Three keynote lectures were presented: 1) W. Erianon soil survey mapping at different scales in Sudanand Egypt, 2) W. Wu on landuse and biomass pro-duction in Sudan and China, and: 3) S. Khresat onlanduse/cover changes detection in Jordan. Keynotelectures were followed by three oral presentationson the assessment of land degradation in coastalSyria by M. Al-Abed, mass movement hazards inLebanon by Ch. Abdallah and land degradation inLebanon by Mr Antonio Youssef. The topic of the second session was on the impact ofclimate change on soil behavior and productivity andsoil resilience to erosion, drought and desertifica-tion. One keynote lecture was given by Hong Ma onbenchmark and indicators for desertification moni-toring and assessment in Asia region followed by apresentation on soil erosion in Alger by Gh. Abder-ahim and another presentation on the role of ACSADin the soil research in the Arab countries by W. Erian.

N OV E M B E R 2009 29

Reports of meetings

The third session held on Wednesday 24/6/2009 wason Land management and organic amendment toenhance carbon sequestration. A keynote was pre-sented by R. Sommer on using the cropsyst modelfor assessing soil organic carbon sequestration, fol-lowed by a presentation on soil organic carbonstocks at Tunisia scale by T. Gallali and in theLebanese territory by T. Darwish. The last two oralpresentations of this session were given by R. Ba-chour on field experiments on CA in Lebanon and oninfluence of no-tillage on hydrodynamic propertiesof a Mediterranean Vertisol by R. Moussadek. Thethird session was followed by examining 16 postersdealing with soil genesis and classification, soil map-ping, soil pollution, and nutrient management.The fourth session dealt with Indigenous Mediter-ranean ecosystems- the Mediterranean anthroscapes.Indicators of the reshaping processes of the Mediter-ranean landscape. Two keynotes were given: 1) R.Harfouche on combining archaeology and pedologyin the study of Mediterranean anthroscapes and 2) E.De Pauw on land suitability for deroking. One oralpresentation was given by A. Ramadan on the use ofchemical stabilizers for sand stabilization.On Wendsady 25 June 2009 a field trip was organ-ized to present the Lebanese soils with a visit to theCedar mountain forest at Falougha and BaalbackRoman Temples.Session five and six dealing with effective irrigationand fertilization of Mediterraean soils within thecontext of integrated production, secondary soilsalinity and soil management and contaminationwere held on Friday 26 June 2009, the last day of themeeting. Three key-notes and five oral presentationshave been made on these sessions. The first keynoteby A. Hennings on the development of pedotransferfunctions to estimate annual percolation rates incountries of the Arab regions. The second keynotewas presented by F. Trolard on Astuce and Tic pro-gram: a collaborative tool to integrate soil and waterresources for spreading cities. The third keynote waspresented by S. Loddo on GIS based model to assessrisk of soil salinization in Sardinia (Italy). The fivepresentations were made by 1) Th. Atallah on theorigin and distribution of soil salinity in greenhousesalong coastal Lebanon, 2) M. Benkhelifa on the ef-fects of salinity and sodicity on physical propertiesof sandy soils under semi-arid Mediterranean cli-mate, 3) G. Bourrié on copper mobility in contami-nated soils in Chile, 4) R. Wakim on selenium levelsin Lebanese environment and 5) A. Hasanzadeh onthe ssessment of input and output energy in chick-

pea production under rainfed farming systems.

Each session was followed by discussion and themeeting was closed by general discussion where apositive evaluation was given to the organizationand smooth flow of sessions in a thematic way. Par-ticipants emphasized the importance of variability inthe topics which enriched the management of natu-ral resources keeping soil as a central focus in theland degradation assessment, land contamination,indigenous ecosystems, irrigation and fertilization,land management, climate change and soil resilienceto drought and use of modern techniques in the stu-dies of land resources. They confirmed that involve-ment of participants in the sessions were seriousand active participation in the poster session reflec-ting the interest of participants about land contami-nation, climate change, new techniques related tousing nematodes found in the soil to fight forest in-sects, beside some basic studies on soil genesis andclassification. The fact that the final session was at-tended by more than 75% of participants indicatesthe seriousness and success of the meeting. A pro-posal to hold the next, 11th International Meeting onSoils with Mediterranean Type of Climate, in Algeriain 2011 was discussed.

32nd Congress of the Brazilian Society of Soil ScienceAugust 2 - 7, 2009, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil

The Brazilian Soil Science Society is one of the largerSoil Science Societies within the IUSS family of SoilScience Societies which was shown at its recent Con-gress, held in Fortaleza in north eastern Brazil. TheCongress, the 32nd in the series was held from 2nd to7th August 2009 with the very topical theme ‘The soiland the production of bioenergy: Possibilities andChallenges. There were well over 2000 participantsfrom across Brazil and fellow Soil Science Societiesin Latin America together with a number of invitedguests from further afield. At the invitation of thePresident of the Brazilian Soil Science Society FlavioCamargo, IUSS were represented by the PresidentRoger Swift and the Secretary General Stephen Nort-cliff (the Photograph shows Flavio Camargo togetherwith Roger Swift and Stephen Nortcliff). As well aspresenting the opportunity to discuss IUSS with col-leagues it also provided an opportunity to promotethe forthcoming World Congress in Brisbane one


year from the date of this Brazilian Conference.Fortaleza is a wonderful city, on the Atlantic Coastwith a port and strong industrial base as well as serv-ing as an outlet for agricultural production from itshinterland in the State of Ceará. Fortaleza is a touristdestination for both Brazilians and those fromaboard and is well provided with a wide range ofhotel accommodation. Many of the participantsstayed in hotels close to the extensive beach and theAtlantic Ocean and took advantage of the range offoods available including excellent sea food and thetraditional ‘Churrasco’ with its excellent range ofmeats served at your table.The conference began on the Sunday evening with awelcome at the open air theatre of the Rectory ofthe Federal University of Ceará, which has a numberof buildings from the early days of Fortaleza beforethe very rapid growth in recent years. The enter-tainment included folk dancing, singing, a poem towelcome Brazilians from the four corners of thecountry and a virtuoso performance on the accor-dion. This was followed by speeches of welcome andthanks from local and national representatives ofBrazilian Soil Science and scientists from relatedfields, together with a recognition of the companiesand bodies which had provided sponsorship for theCongress.The Congress itself was held at the Conference Cen-tre of Fortaleza with delegates transported by busesor making their own way there. In addition to the fullprogramme of oral papers there was an extensiveposter display with over 1000 posters. I was giventhe honour of opening the Congress with a Plenarypresentation entitled ‘IUSS activities and its role inworld soil science’. In addition to my presentationRoger Swift gave a short presentation outlining theplans for the World Congress of Soil Science in Bris-bane August 2010.After Coffee there were four parallel sessions whichran for the rest of the day. The first of these on ‘Fer-tility and Plant Nutrition’ was opened by a specialpresentation from Malcolm Sumner from Athens,Georgia entitled ‘Plant Analysis: Benefits and Pitfallsin Making Diagnoses in the Field. In the second ofthe parallel sessions Ahmet Mermut (Chair of Divi-sion One) gave a presentation entitled ‘Structuresand reactivity of mineral particles of tropical soil’.The other two sessions where on the Biology of Soiland Soil Physics.The Second day of the Congress began with a Plenarypresentation from F.O.M. Durães from EMBRAPAAgro-Energia group on ‘Brazilian biomass and the pro-

duction of Bioenergy’. This was a wide-ranging pres-entation which gave a very positive outlook on the po-tential of Brazil to sustainably produce bioenergy.After coffee there were again four parallel sessions.Roger Swift opened the session on Management andConservation of Soils with a talk entitled ‘Carbon se-questration by soils, including biofuels and biochar.’The session on Genesis, Morphology and Classifica-tion of Soils was opened by Peter Buurman from Wa-geningen University with a talk entitled ‘Soil organicmatter and its role in pedogenesis’. The other parallelsessions addressed fertilizers and corrective actionsin soils and soil pollution. Steve McGrath fromRothamsted gave a talk entitled ‘Terrestrial ecologi-cal risk assessment of heavy metals’. The 8 themesidentified provided the structure for the paper pre-sentations, the panel discussions and the poster pre-sentations throughout the Congress. In addition tothe oral and poster presentations the Brazilian Societyof Soil Science also took the opportunity to recognisetext produced under the auspices of the Society to en-sure that modern Soil Sciecne information is availablein Portuguese at reasonable prices for the students.These included a very well illustrated and referencedtwo volume text edited by Vander de Freitas Melo andLuis Reynaldo F. Alleoni on the Chemistry and Miner-alogy of Soils and Volume Vi (2009) of Tópicos em Ciê-cia do Solo. In addition to oral presentations, poster presenta-tions and panel discussions there were of coursefield excursions. One and two day excursions tostudy the Genesis, Morphology and Classification ofsoils in Ceará and a one day excursion to an area ofirrigated agriculture in Ceará.This was a very well organised Congress with a widerange of topics and speakers. The discussion in theformal presentations was good and well structured,but was probably outstripped by the lively discus-sions which took place informally at coffee breaks

N OV E M B E R 2009 31

and around the posters. It was good to see very ac-tive participation of young soil scientists. It was alsogood to hear Professor Emidio Cantído de OliveiraFilho, Director of the Programs of CAPES, that Brazilis increasing Federal funding for University coursesin Soil Science, particularly at Masters level as wellas supporting an active programme of in servicetraining and courses to ensure the professional de-velopment of its scientists.In addition to scientific discussions the Brazilian SoilScience Society also held a General Meeting at whichdiscussions about future plans and the structure ofthe Society were discussed. In the future the scien-tific structure of the Brazilian Soil Science Societywill mirror that of IUSS, with four Divisions and Com-missions within Divisions.

On behalf of those invited to join in the Congress, Iwould like to express by many thanks. The Congresswas very well organised covered a wide range ofsubjects and provided the opportunity to discusssome very pertinent questions on the subject ofbioenergy and the role of soils, whilst not forgettingthe other areas of soil science which are also impor-tant. Fortaleza is a wonderful place to hold a Con-gress, just south of the Equator, but with the coolingbreeze from the sea making it a pleasant environ-ment in which to walk around, even for someonefrom so far north as me!

Stephen NortcliffSecretary General IUSS

Annual Meeting of the AOAC INTERNATIONAL PNWTacoma, USA

The 29th Annual Meeting of the Pacific NorthwestSection of the AOAC INTERNATIONAL was held at theUniversity of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington,USA on June 17-18, 2009. The theme of the meetingwas “Validation Science to Ensure our Safety in aChanging World”. The meeting began with an inter-national group of keynote speakers and progressedinto the following specialized seminars: Soil and En-vironmental Chemistry, Microbiology, Dietary Sup-plements, Pesticides and Industrial Residues, andSeafood Contaminants. The program also includedMembership Reception, Poster Session, ChemistryTraining (Statistics and Spreadsheets), MicrobiologyTraining (Single Laboratory Validations), InstrumentExpo (an exhibition of scientific equipment, suppliesand services), and a banquet presentation “In theLand of Camas and Cedar: American Indian PlantMedicines of the Pacific Northwest”.The diverse program was of interest to analyticalcommunities, researchers, regulators, and industrymembers. The meeting provided an excellent op-portunity to learn from the experts recognized intheir fields and peers and other attendees whoshare similar interests and challenges in analyticalfields. The 2008–2009 Executive included James M.Hungerford (Chair), Yash P. Kalra (Past Chair), Mike


Planning Committee of the Annual Meeting of the AOAC INTERNATIONAL PNW.

Grant and Fred Krick (Treasurers), and Nancy Hill(Secretary). For further information on the Section,please visit us at www.aoacpacnw.com.

Yash P. KalraEdmonton, Alberta, Canada

V International Conference on CryopedologySeptember 14-20, 2009

The Cryosol Working Group of the IUSS and Interna-tional Permafrost Association (IPA) held the V Inter-national Conference on Cryopedology on September14-20 in Ulan-Ude, Buryatia, Russia. The focus of themeeting was DIVERSITY OF FROST-AFFECTED SOILSAND THEIR ROLE IN ECOSYSTEMS. The meeting washosted by the Institute of General and ExperimentalBiology, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sci-ences, Ulan-Ude. The co-organizers of the confer-ence were Institute of Geography, Russian Academyof Sciences, Moscow and Dokuchaev Soil Science In-stitute, Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences,Moscow. There were several groups active in the or-ganization and sponsoring of the conference -Cryosol Working group of IUSS and IPA; Commissionof Genesis of IUSS; Commision of Palepedology of

IUSS and INQUA; Dokuchaev Soil Science Society; In-stitute of Physico-Chemical and Biological Problemsof Soil Science, Pushchino, Russia; Russian Founda-tion for Basic Research; Presidium of Russian Acad-emy of Sciences. All of these groups are thanked forthere efforts.

Over 110 participants attended the meeting fromsix different countries representing many differentareas of soil science but all with an active interest inCryopedology. The first 4 days in Ulan-Ude were for-mal sessions where 74 papers were presented aswell as 25 posters dealing with all aspects ofCryosols. There was a very active discussion of thedifferent papers and recommendations were madefor mitigation of consequences of global climatechange for permafrost-affected soils.Three days were then spent on very interesting fieldtrips to the Vitim Plateau in Central Buryatia andLake Baikal Region. The field trip focused on Soilsand Temperature regimes of these regions. Severalsoil profiles were visited and their genesis and clas-sification were discussed by the group. How the soilswere classified in different classification and map-ping systems were discussed and compared. It wasstressed that the criteria of soil classification sys-tems, especially the WRB system, are developed forregions with a climate lacking strong continental fea-tures, where a cold and usually humid summer cor-

N OV E M B E R 2009 33

responds to a cold winter. Cryosols, i.e., soils withshallow permafrost, frequently cryoturbated, occurunder those conditions. The rare case of non-cry-oturbated soils with permafrost corresponds to thequalifier Gelic, which denotes the soils with per-mafrost at a depth between 1 and 2 m. However, thesoils observed in the field trip showed that per-mafrost has a significant effect when thaws deeperthan 2 m. This fact should be taken into considera-tion. For this purpose, new qualifiers in WRB can bedeveloped and the prefix qualifier Turbic should beincluded in the WRB list of definitions not only forCryosols, but also for other soils.All of us who attended were very impressed by theorganizational work done by our Russian colleaguesfrom Ulan-Ude. All of the logistical arrangementswere excellent and the meeting ran very smoothlyat all times. The field trip was super with many soilprofiles to discuss with a very informative and de-tailed tour guide. Meeting was very scientific andeveryone had a good time and all left with a verygood impression.

Marek Drewnik Sergey Goryachkin (Cryosol Working Group)

Eleventh International Symposiumon Soil and Plant AnalysisSanta Rosa, California, USA

The 11th International Symposium on Soil and PlantAnalysis (ISSPA) was held at the Hyatt VineyardCreek Hotel, Santa Rosa, California, USA on July 20-24, 2009. There were approximately 100 delegatesfrom 19 countries. The Symposium was sponsoredby the Soil and Plant Analysis Council, Inc. (SPAC),an international society of scientists and organiza-tions interested in advancing nutrient analysis ofsoil, plant, and water. The objective of this biennialSymposium was “ to convene agricultural and natu-ral resource scientists from around the world to dis-seminate information on methodology,interpretation, and application of soil, plant, andwater analyses for the purpose of efficient resourcemanagement, sustainable production, and the en-vironment”.

There were 29 oral presentations in the following11 Plenary Sessions: (1) Welcome and California

Agriculture (2) Turf and Landscape (3) PrecisionAgriculture and Cropping Systems (4 to 7) Viticul-ture Program (8) Energy and Biofuels (9) Instru-mentation (10) Water Analysis and Lab ProficiencyTesting, and (11) Interpretation of Soil and PlantAnalysis. These sessions were moderated by StuPettygrove (USA), Roger Hill (New Zealand), TamásNémeth (Hungary), Daniel Roberts (USA), NatDellavalle (USA), Joan Davenport (USA), RobMikkelsen (USA), Jorgé Etchevers (Mexico), GeorgeRayment (Australia), Yash Kalra (Canada), and RigasKaramanos (Canada), respectively. There were 109presentations in three poster sessions. Joe Crum-baugh (Canada), Katalin Sárdi (Hungary), and StuPettygrove (USA) gave, to whet the appetite, anoverall picture of the posters being presented inthese sessions. The oral and poster papers will bepublished, after scientific reviews, in the Proceed-ings as a special issue of the Communications in SoilScience and Plant Analysis”. At the Symposium Dinner on July 23, David Kissel,SPAC President, presented the J. Benton Jones, Jr.Award to Tamás Németh, a world renowned soil sci-entist from Hungary, for his significant contributionsto the development and advancement of soil andplant analysis. The recipients of this prestigiousaward at the previous ten symposia were J. BentonJones, Jr., USA (1989), Victor J.G. Houba, the Nether-lands (1991), Yash P. Kalra, Canada (1993), NatDellavalle, USA (1995), Wayne Sabbe, USA (1997),Umesh C. Gupta, Canada (1999), Theodore R. Peck,USA (2001), George E. Rayment, Australia (2003),Malcolm Sumner, USA (2005), and John Ryan, Syria(2007). The Symposium Organizing Committee includedmembers from the USA (Nat Dellavalle, Mark Flock,Donald Horneck, David E. Kissel (Chair), SteveMcGeehan, Rob Mikkelsen, Robert Miller, RaoMylavarapu, Stu Pettygrove, Daniel Roberts, QuentinRund, and Cliff Snyder), Australia (George E. Ray-ment), Canada (Yash P. Kalra), New Zealand (RogerHill), and South Africa (Arri van Vuuren). The Scien-tific Program Committee included Steve McGeehan,Rao Mylavarapu, Stuart Pettygrove (Chair), GeorgeE. Rayment, In addition to the sponsors (AgricultureLaboratory Proficiency Program, Bunge FertilizantesS.A., International Plant Nutrition Institute, Mosaic,and Brookside Laboratories, Inc.), the Exhibit Hallfeatured exhibits and robotics demonstrations fromseveral vendors.Twenty participants from Australia (2), Canada (2),Croatia (3), Hungary (7), and USA (6) took the Pre-


Symposium Tour on July 17-19. The Salinas Valley(“Salad Bowl of the World”) Agricultural EducationTour featured fresh vegetable production and fo-cused on the advanced farming techniques thatmake Monterey County the number one vegetablegrowing region in the world. Observed were leaf let-tuce (romaine, red leaf, green leaf, butter, and esca-role), head lettuce (iceberg), broccoli, cauliflower,artichoke, celery, greenhouse nurseries, strawber-ries, and other field activities. The Tour stopped atthe Pezzini Farms Produce Stand in Castroville (“TheArtichoke Capital of the World”).

At the Sea Mist Farms, lettuce field harvest andpacking techniques were seen. The Tour also in-cluded the Dole Value-Added Products Plant. In Sali-nas, participants visited the National SteinbeckCenter Museum, a museum and memorial dedicatedto author, Nobel Prize winner, John Ernst Steinbeck,Jr. The second day included a tour of the scenic Mon-terey peninsula and the world famous Monterey BayAquarium. Then Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach (17Mile Drive) with several stops including the Lone Cy-press Tree (the tree is over 200 years old; it isperched on a rock).Also observed was marine wildlife. The Tour stoppedand visited serene seaside town of Carmel-by-the-Sea (which has no streetlights or house numbers).The last day included a drive north along the scenicHwy 1 coast (Watsonville, Santa Cruz, Davenport,Half Moon Bay, etc.), then east along Hwy 92, Hwy101 north. Next was a brief photo-op at the Golden

Gate Bridge, then lunch in the picturesque water-front community of Sausalito (elevation 4 m). In theafternoon the tour group visited Muir Woods Na-tional Monument (named for noted conservationistJohn Muir). It was interesting to learn that MuirWoods’ Cathedral Grove hosted the first United Na-tions conference on May 19, 1945; delegates from48 nations discussed the establishment of a lastingpeace following the Second World War. The CoastRedwoods, Sequoia sempervirens (also known asCalifornia Redwoods) are the tallest trees on Earth.Nat Dellavalle did an excellent job of coordinatingthis memorable tour. The mid-Symposium Viticulture Tour on July 22 in-cluded stops at Dana States Winery and Quintessavineyards in Napa County and Platt and King Vine-yards in Sonoma County. These counties producesome of the finest wines in the world. At each stop,a soil scientist, viticulturist and a winemaker dis-cussed the vineyard in terms of soil, climate, grapeproduction and wine. Soil pits allowed participantsto view soil profiles and discuss how soils interactedwith climate and grape management to affect pro-duction of wine quality.

The first three symposia were held in USA. Sincethen they have been held alternately in NorthAmerica and overseas. The previous ten symposiawere held in Fresno, California, USA (1989), Or-lando, Florida, USA (1991), Olympia, Washington,USA (1993), Wageningen, the Netherlands (1995),Bloomington, Minnesota, USA (1997), Brisbane,

N OV E M B E R 2009 35

Participants view a vineyard soil profile.

Queensland, Australia (1999), Edmonton, Alberta,Canada (2001), Somerset West, Western Cape,South Africa (2003), Cancun, Mexico (2005), andBudapest, Hungary (2007). The 12th ISSPA will beheld in Greece in 2011. Further information will beavailable on the Council’s website (www.spcoun-cil.com).

Yash P. Kalra Canadian Forest Service, Edmonton, AB, CanadaJoe A. Crumbaugh Canadian Forest Service, Edmonton, AB, Canada, and David E. Kissel University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

Advances of Molecular Modelling of Biogeochemical InterfacesPerspectives for Soil Research - 2009

In Dornburg near Jena/Germany the 2nd DFG-IUSS(Commission 2.2) Symposium on molecular model-ing was held from 6th to 7th of October 2009( h t t p : / / w w w. s p p 1 3 1 5 . u n i - j e n a . d e / S y m p o -sium_2009.html). Close to 50 participants from allover the world contributed to the symposium, con-sisting of 19 lectures and numerous posters. The dis-tinguished invited speakers as e.g. Don Sparks, JimKubicki, Gabi Schaumann, Neal Skipper, Hans Lis-chka, Sylvio Canuto, M.A.C. Nascimento and A.G.Kalinichev reviewed the present status of molecularanalytical and modeling methods. In comparison tothe first symposium, which was held 4 years ago inVienna, it became clear that molecular methodshave developed significantly and numerous exam-ples of contributions of molecular modeling to elu-cidate principle processes in soils could be shown.

Specifically the understanding of humic substancesand their properties in an aqueous environment, themolecular interactions of organic compounds and in-organic ions with soil interfaces were in the center ofthe presentations.A publication of the outcome of the symposium isplanned.

Martin H. Gerzabek, Vienna


Participants of the symposium on molecular modeling in Dornburg.

Référentiel pédologique 2008 (in French), Associa-tion française pour l’étude du sol – Denis Baize &Michel-Claude Girard (Eds). Quae. 2008. 436 p. ISBN-13 978-2-7592-0185-3. Price: 45 euros.

The Référentiel pédologique isa detailed typology of soils ofFrance, Europe, Africa andother continents. This third edi-tion, which has been entirelyreworked, contains three newchapters covering soils in in-tertropical zones and their spe-cific reference horizons, andtwo new tools: a rapid access

key to the different chapters and an annexe of thepossible correspondences between the referencesin the Référentiel pédologique and the categories inthe World Reference Base for Soil Resources. TheRéférentiel pédologique has been tried and testedin the field for some fifteen years now, and has be-come indispensable. It was designed to be accessibleto non-specialists with some knowledge of the basicvocabulary of soil science, and is indispensable toanyone wanting to take account of the diversity ofsoil types.www.quae.com/livre/?GCOI=27380100883830&fa=description

Response of Crops to Limited Water: Understand-ing and Modeling Water Stress Effects on PlantGrowth Processes, edited by L.R. Ahuja, V.R. Reddy,S.A. Saseendran, and Qiang Yu. ASA, CSSA, SSSA,2008. ISBN: 978-0-89118-167-5.

Agriculture research today re-quires a whole-system quantita-tive approach, and farmers needsimple management tools de-rived from robust models. Agri-cultural system modelers see asnarl of competing water de-mands, depleted aquifers,drought, and changing plant

water requirements due to global warming andknow where the answers lie: in achieving conser-vation of rain and irrigation water, preservation of

groundwater quality, and increased water use effi-ciency in crop production. The first in the ground-breaking Advances in Agricultural SystemsModeling series from ASA-CSSA-SSSA, Response ofCrops to Limited Water: Understanding and Model-ing Water Stress Effects on Plant Growth Processescompiles the work of world experts, systematicallypresenting recent knowledge of water stress effectsand emphasizing the knowledge synthesis that willmove agriculture forward.

A Handbook of Soil Terminology, Correlation andClassification, edited By Pavel Krasilnikov, Juan-JoseIbanez Marti, Richard Arnold, Serghei Shoba. Hard-back September 2009. 352 pages. ISBN9781844076833.

Soil classification and terminologyare fundamental issues for theclear understanding and commu-nication of the subject. However,while there are many national soilclassification systems, these donot directly correlate with eachother. This leads to confusion andgreat difficulty in undertaking

comparative scientific research that draws on morethan one system and in making sense of internationalscientific papers using a system that is unfamiliar tothe reader. This book aims to clarify this position bydescribing and comparing different systems and eval-uating them in the context of the World ReferenceBase (WRB) for Soil Resources. The latter was set upto resolve these problems by creating an interna-tional “umbrella” system for soil correlation. All soilscientists should then classify soils using the WRB aswell as their national systems. The book is a defini-tive and essential reference work for all studentsstudying soils as part of life, earth or environmentalsciences, as well as professional soil scientists.

The Fertilizer Encyclopedia, by Vasant Gowariker, V.N. Krishnamurthy, Sudha Gowariker, ManikDhanorkar, Kalyani Paranjape, Norman Borlaug (Pro-logue by). ISBN: 978-0-470-41034-9 Hardcover, 880pages. February 2009.

N OV E M B E R 2009 37

New Publications

Fertilizers are key for meeting theworld’s demands for food, fiber, andfuel. Featuring nearly 4,500 terms ofinterest to all scientists and re-searchers dealing with fertilizers,The Fertilizer Encyclopedia compilesa wealth of information on the

chemical composition of fertilizers, and includes in-formation on everything from manufacturing andapplications to economical and environmental con-siderations. It covers behavior in soil, chemical andphysical characteristics, physiological role in plantgrowth and soil fertility, and more. This is the defin-itive, up-to-date reference on fertilizers.

Understanding Vineyard Soils, by Robert White. Ox-ford University Press. Hardback, 240 pages, ISBN 13:9780195311259.

Understanding Vineyard Soils explainsto a wide audience how soils form andwhy they are so variable. Robert Whitedescribes essential chemical and physi-cal processes involving nutrients, water,oxygen and carbon dioxide, moderatedby the activities of soil organisms, and

proposes remedies to alleviate adverse conditions suchas soil acidity, compaction, poor drainage and salinity.The pros and cons of organic viticulture are discussed,as are the possible impacts of climate change. The au-thor explains how sustainable wine production re-quires grape growers and winemakers to take care ofthe soil and minimize the impact of their activities onthe environment. This book is a practical guide for viti-culturists and for the lay reader who is seeking generalinformation about soils, but who may also wish to pur-sue in more depth the influence of different soil typeson vine performance and wine character. Understand-ing Vineyard Soils will discuss new developments, es-pecially in precision viticulture and organic viticulture.The introduction will address new technologies (nearand remote sensing, digital soil mapping) as well as tra-ditional soil classification.

Soil and Land Survey Field Handbook, Third Edition,by the National Committee on Soil and Terrain. 2009.Australian. CSIRO Publishing. 264 pp.

The Australian Soil and Land SurveyField Handbook has been widelyused throughout Australia, provid-ing one reference set of definitionsfor the characterisation of landform,vegetation, land surface, soil and

substrate. The book advocates that a comprehensivesuite of land and soil attributes be recorded in a uni-form manner. This approach is more useful than theallocation of land or soil to preconceived types orclasses. The third edition includes revised chapterson location and vegetation as well as some newlandform elements. These updates have beenguided by the National Committee on Soil and Ter-rain, a steering committee comprising representa-tives from key federal, state and territory landresource assessment agencies.

The Soils of Tomorrow - Soils Changing in a Chang-ing World, by C. Dazzi and E. Costantini. Catena Ver-lag, 2008. Hardcover, 728 pp. ISBN 3923381562.

Man is considered the sixth factorof soil formation and his actioncan be so intense to completelymodify the future evolution of thesoils. The book reports selectedpapers from the 5th internationalcongress of the European Societyfor Soil Conservation. The confer-ence main goal was to promote

exchange and discussion about the consequences ofman pressure on soil and landscape, and to stimulatethe awareness in the civil society. The book isarranged under eighth interrelated chapters: Soil andsociety, Soil erosion, Soil organic matter, Soil degra-dation and desertification, Soil pollution and contam-ination, Soil conservation and soil quality, Policies forenvironmental conservation in a global society, andnew approaches and technologies for soil assess-ment. A key note on the related state of the art openseach chapter. The book offers reflections, analysis,facts, new data, suggestions and recommendations,to questions linked to the unbalanced relationshipsbetween man and soil. An editorial and a resolutionsummarize the main outcomes of the conference.

Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) in a Sus-tainable Rice-Wheat Cropping System, by Mahajan,Anil, Gupta, R.D. Springer, 2009. 268 p., HardcoverISBN: 978-1-4020-9874-1 .

India’s rice and wheat crops are incrisis – a dangerous situation for anation where 75 per cent of the pop-ulation depends on agriculture for aliving. Today’s falling or static yieldsin these two key crops have been theresult of the intensification of agri-culture from the 1960s on. That so-


called ‘Green Revolution’, which depended heavily onchemical fertilizers and pesticides, saw crop produc-tion keep pace with population growth until the endof the last millennium. Today, however, the sector issuffering from depleted soils and reduced groundwater levels. Past excesses have even left the currentgeneration of farmers with health hazards. The au-thors of this volume, experts in agriculture andagronomy in the subcontinent, say a new approachis needed. India’s population will rise from today’s1.18 billion people to as many as 1.5 billion by 2020,with 25 per cent more mouths to feed. Not only that,but agriculture’s pre-eminent place in the country’seconomy, where it is 18 per cent of total GDP and thebiggest single export sector, make any problem in theindustry one of national importance.

Guidelines of the soil survey and data informatiza-tion methods (Linee guida dei metodi di rileva-mento e informatizzazione dei dati pedologici) InItalian, with extended English abstract, Edoardo A.C. Costantini editor. CRA-ABP. Paperback, 280 p., CD-Rom, ISBN 9788890352102.

Soil knowledge is an essential ele-ment for the environment protec-tion and for agricultural and soiluse planning. The guidelines of themethods for soil investigation anddata informatization is the refer-ence text for Italy, supported andcreated under the auspices of the

Italian Ministry of Agricultural Food and ForestryPolicies. It collects the experiences of several na-tional and regional research and academic Instituteson soil survey at different scales and makes refer-ence to the European and International standards.The book is freely distributed on request to: CRA-ABP Piazza D’Azeglio30 Firenze 50121 Italy (adding3.95 euros in stamps).

Hormones and Pharmaceuticals Generated by Con-centrated Animal Feeding Operations Transport inWater and Soil. By Shore, Laurence S.; Pruden, Amy(Eds.) Springer, 2009, X, 138 p. 23 illus., Hardcover.ISBN: 978-0-387-92833-3.

This book examines how hormones,antibiotics and pharmaceuticals gener-ated from concentrated animal feedingoperations (CAFOs) of cattle, poultry,swine and aquaculture are transportedin water and soil. Little is known of theenvironmental fate of the tons of phys-

iologically active steroid hormones released eachyear. In the last 20 years considerable attention hasbeen given to a wide variety of natural and anthro-pomorphic agents known as endocrine disruptingcompounds (EDCs). While some advances in the un-derstanding of the fate of these compounds in waterhas been made, little is known about the processesthat govern their transport in soil or how they even-tually reach groundwater. It is somewhat of a mys-tery how steroids, with their lipophilic nature, strongbinding to humic acids and extensive metabolism bysoil bacteria, can be transported through even a fewcentimeters of soil, let alone 20 to 40 meters to thegroundwater. With respect to antibiotics, the em-phasis is on their fate and transport in the environ-ment and on the emergence of antibiotic resistantbacteria. Impacts on soil ecology, including the im-pact of antibiotics on the metabolism of other activeagents, is also discussed. Similarly, the acaricides andinsecticides used in animal husbandry are widelyused and their environmental pathways have beenstudied and have significant impacts on soil and dungecology. Active compounds with potential environ-mental impacts, such as growth promoters generatedfrom CAFOs, are described.

Soil Science. Edited By A.E. Hartemink, A.B. McBrat-ney and R.E. White. Earthscan Reference Collections2009. 1667 pages. ISBN 9781844076468.

This four-volume set, edited byleading experts in soil science,brings together in one collectiona series of papers that have beenfundamental to the develop-ment of soil science as a defineddiscipline. Some of the paperswere first published many yearsago, but they remain classics in

their fields and retain their relevance to the un-derstanding of current issues. The papers havebeen selected with the assistance of an eminent in-ternational editorial board. The set includes a gen-eral introduction and each volume is introduced bya new overview essay, placing the selected papersin context. The range of subject matter is consider-able, including traditional subjects such as soil gen-esis, physics and mineralogy, applied disciplinessuch as soils and hydrology, land degradation andplant nutrition, as well as more contemporary top-ics such as soil pollution, land use and environ-mental change. Overall, the set provides studentsand teachers, confronted with thousands of jour-

N OV E M B E R 2009 39

nal articles, book chapters and grey literaturestretching back over nearly a century, with a ready-made selection of and commentary on the most im-portant key writings in soil science. It will be anessential reference for libraries concerned withearth sciences, environmental studies, agricultureand forestry.

Soil and Culture. By Landa, Edward R.; Feller, Chris-tian (Eds.). Springer, 2009, Approx. 500 p., Hard-cover. ISBN: 978-90-481-2959-1.

Soil has been called the final frontierof environmental research. The criti-cal role of soil in biogeochemicalprocesses is tied to its properties andplace—porous, structured, and spa-tially variable, it serves as a conduit,buffer, and transformer of water,

solutes and gases. Yet what is complex, life-giving,and sacred to some, is ordinary, even ugly, to others.This is the enigma that is soil. Soil and Culture ex-plores the perception of soil in ancient, traditional,and modern societies. It looks at the visual arts(painting, textiles, sculpture, architecture, film,comics and stamps), prose & poetry, religion, phi-losophy, anthropology, archaeology, wine produc-tion, health & diet, and disease & warfare. Soil andCulture explores high culture and popular culture—from the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch to the filmsof Steve McQueen. It looks at ancient societies andcontemporary artists. Contributors from a variety ofdisciplines delve into the mind of Carl Jung and thebellies of soil eaters, and explore Chinese paintings,African mud cloths, Mayan rituals, Japanese films,French comic strips, and Russian poetry. This is a nontraditional volume which will serve the soil sciencecommunity well while also reaching a broader earthscience community such as geologists and geogra-phers, as well as in the arts and social science com-munities.

Soils, Society & Global Change. EU JRC, 2009. This book highlights how our ability to managesoils plays an important role in global challengessuch as climate change, biodiversity reduction,food and water security, and economic and socialprogress. It explores policy and legal challenges,knowledge management issues, and the cru¬cialrole of soil in the successful implementation of theglobal environ¬mental conventions. The book con-cludes with the Programme for Action which in-cludes a number of proactive recommendations on

how global policies can be improved to protect soilas a resource.

Electrochemical Remediation Technologies for Pol-luted Soils, Sediments and Groundwater. By: Kr-ishna R. Reddy, Claudio Cameselle. ISBN:978-0-470-38343-8. Wiley, 2009.

Electrochemical technologies areemerging as important approachesfor effective and efficient pollutionremediation, both on their ownand in concert with other remedia-tion techniques. ElectrochemicalRemediation Technologies for Pol-luted Soils, Sediments and Ground-

water provides a systematic and clear explanationof fundamentals, field applications, as well as op-portunities and challenges in developing and im-plementing electrochemical remediationtechnologies. Written by leading authorities in theirvarious areas, the text summarizes the latest re-search and offers case studies that illustrate equip-ment, installation, and methods employed inreal-world remediations. Divided into nine sections,the coverage includes: Introduction and fundamen-tal principles; Remediation of heavy metals andother inorganic pollutants; Remediation of organicpollutants; Remediation of mixed contaminants;Electrokinetic barriers; Integrated (coupled) tech-nologies; Mathematical modeling; Economic andregulatory considerations; Field applications andperformance assessment.

Fundamentals of Soil Mechanics for Sedimentaryand Residual Soils. By: Laurence D. Wesley. ISBN:978-0-470-37626-3. Wiley, 2009.

Despite its prevalence in under-de-veloped parts of the United Statesand most tropical and sub-tropicalcountries, residual soil is often char-acterized as a mere extension ofconventional soil mechanics in manytextbooks. Now, with the rapidgrowth of construction in these re-

gions, it is essential to gain a fuller understanding ofresidual soils and their properties—one that’s basedon an integrated approach to the study of residualand sedimentary soils. One text puts this under-standing well within reach: Fundamentals of Soil Me-chanics for Sedimentary and Residual Soils. The firstresource to provide equal treatment of both resid-ual and sedimentary soils and their unique engi-


neering properties, this skill-building guide offers: Aconcise introduction to basic soil mechanics, stress-strain behavior, testing, and design; In-depth cover-age that spans the full scope of soil engineering,from bearing capacity and foundation design to thestability of slopes; A focus on concepts and princi-ples rather than methods, helping you avoid ideal-ized versions of soil behavior and maintain a designapproach that is consistent with real soils of the nat-ural world; An abundance of worked problemsthroughout, demonstrating in some cases that con-ventional design techniques applicable to sedimen-tary soils are not valid for residual soils; Numerousend-of-chapter exercises supported by an online so-lutions manual.

Water Scarcity, Land Degradation and Desertifica-tion in the Mediterranean Region.Environmentaland Security Aspects. Proceedings of a NATO Ad-vanced Research Workshop. NATO Science for Peaceand Security Series . Rubio, J.L.; Safriel, U.; Daussa,R.; Blum, W.E.H.; Pedrazzini, F. (Eds.). Springer 2009.ISBN: 978-90-481-2525.

This book is the outcome of an in-ternational workshop promotedand organised by the Organisationfor Security and Cooperation in Eu-rope (OSCE) and by the Science forPeace and Security Programme ofNATO. Its focus is the emergingissue of environment and security

aspects in terms of water scarcity, land degradationand desertification in the Mediterranean Region.This region has been identified as one of the mostvulnerable areas with respect to environmental se-curity threats. Conversely, due to its climatic andtopographic features, the cross-boundary dimensionof the Mediterranean Basin, and its mix of cultural,political and economic diversity, the region also rep-resents an area that poses the potential for socialand political instability. The Euro-Mediterranean Re-gion is affected by frequent severe environmentalevents, such as forest fires, floods and landslides,droughts, torrential rains, heat waves and waterscarcity. The Southern and Eastern shores of theMediterranean undergo even more harsh environ-mental impacts affecting the availability of water re-sources and the soil quality & productivity. Theseenvironmental conditions contribute to the devel-opment of negative processes, like social marginal-ization, conflicts and migrations.

Holistic approach to biodiversity and bioindicationin soil. By Cenci, R.M. and Jones , R.J.A. (Eds). Officefor the Official Publications of the European Com-munities, 2009.

To study and investigate soil biodiver-sity is a difficult task because of thecomplex interactions that exist in soiland the need for considerable expert-ise to undertake the necessary inves-tigations. The factors that influencebiodiversity are diverse: some are nat-

ural, for example soil acidity, water retention, tem-perature and organic matter content, others areanthropogenic, for example human population pres-sure. This report summarises the results of the mul-tidisciplinary BIO-BIO study of biodiversity.

Ground penetrating radar: theory and applications.Edited By H. Jol, Elsevier, Hardbound, 544 pages,2008 ISBN-13: 978-0-444-53348-7.

Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is arapidly developing field that hasseen tremendous progress over thepast 15 years. The development ofGPR spans aspects of geophysicalscience, technology, and a widerange of scientific and engineering

applications. It is the breadth of applications thathas made GPR such a valuable tool in the geophysi-cal consulting and geotechnical engineering indus-tries, has lead to its rapid development, and inspirednew areas of research in academia. The topic of GPRhas gone from not even being mentioned in geo-physical texts ten years ago to being the focus ofhundreds of research papers and special issues ofjournals dedicated to the topic. The explosion of pri-mary literature devoted to GPR technology, theoryand applications, has lead to a strong demand for anup-to-date synthesis and overview of this rapidly de-veloping field. Because there are specifics in the uti-lization of GPR for different applications, a review ofthe current state of development of the applicationsalong with the fundamental theory is required. Thisbook will provide sufficient detail to allow both prac-titioners and newcomers to the area of GPR to use itas a handbook and primary research reference.

Environmental geochemistry: site characterization,data analysis and case histories. Edited by B. DeVivo, H. Belkin, A. Lima. Elsevier Hardbound, 350pages, 2008 ISBN-13: 978-0-444-53159-9. Contents: 1)Introduction. 2)The role of geochemistry

N OV E M B E R 2009 41

in environment and health prob-lems. 3)Regional Programs. FOREGS.Sampling methods for differentmedia - Stream sediments, soils, wa-ters. 4) Environmental impact of thedisposal of solid by-products fromwaste incineration processes.5)Household hazardous waste dis-

posal as a pathway for environmental pollution.6)Sampling methods for site characterization andwaste disposal. 7)Site investigations of stream andgroundwaters: How to avoid getting into deep water.8) Methods of chemical analysis of organics and qual-ity controls. 9)Data base management at regionalscale. 10)Data analysis and treatment, at local scale,using GIS and GeoDAS. 11)Evaluation of back-ground/baseline values. 12) Geochemical mapping ofurban areas. Examples on the munipal soils of Napoli,Avellino, Caserta, Benevento and Salerno towns. 13)Thermodynamics of platinum, palladium, andrhodium with inorganic ligands in the environment.14)Trace metals speciation and bioavailability in soil.15)Environment pollution, epidemiology and Work-ers problems. 16)Medical Geology: Application to ar-senic and fluorine poisoning in southwest GuizhouProvince, China. 17)Contaminated land in Britain.18)The US brownfields program: Case studies reflectprogress and challenges. 19)Case history of site char-acterization in Italy: Bagnoli brownfield site.

Mycorrhizal Symbiosis, 3rd edition. By S. Smith andD. Read. Academic Press, Hardbound, 800 pages,2008. ISBN-13: 978-0-12-370526-6.

The roots of most plants are colo-nized by symbiotic fungi to form my-corrhiza, which play a critical role inthe capture of nutrients from the soiland therefore in plant nutrition. My-corrhizal Symbiosis is recognized asthe definitive work in this area. Since

the last edition was published there have beenmajor advances in the field, particularly in the areaof molecular biology, and the new edition has beenfully revised and updated to incorporate these ex-citing new developments. Audience: Microbiologists,Applied Microbiologists, Biotechnologists, Soil mcro-biologists/scientists, Agricultural scientists, Plant sci-entists, Mycologists, Molecular Biologists.

Soil Biochemistry. By Konrad Haider & AndreasSchäffer. Science Publishers, 1009. ISBN 978-1-57808-579-8; 132 pages.

Soils play a central role in the con-version of organic matter and ele-ment fluxes because of the largenumber of microorganisms presentin the soil. In this book the more im-portant processes that are driven bymicrobiological activity are dis-cussed.

It will be of interest to students of chemistry, biol-ogy, ecology, soil science and related areas. Re-searchers from these fields will profit from extendedliterature surveys in each chapter comprising im-portant findings from early as well as the most re-cent investigations. Contents: 1. Soil and Soil Life; 2.Aerobic and Anaerobic Degradation of Monomerand Polymer Plant Constituents by Soil Microorgan-isms; 3. Humus and Humification; 4. Turnover of Ni-trogen, Phosphorus and Sulfur in Soils andSediments; 5. Composting and Fermentation of Or-ganic Materials; 6. Trace Gases in Soil; 7. Heavy Met-als as Pollutants: Toxicity, Environmental Aspects,Resistance and Biotechnological Aspects

Towards a Soil Information System with quantifiedaccuracy. Three approaches for stochastic simula-tion of soil maps. D.J. Brus & G.B.M. Heuvelink, WOTNatuur & Milieu. ISBN: ISSN 1871-028X.

Soil maps are usually constructedsuch that these provide the best es-timate of the spatial distribution ofthe soil. However, the estimatescontained in the soil map are typi-cally based on limited knowledgeand limited information. To ac-knowledge that soil maps are not

free of errors, the uncertainty in the estimates maybe represented with probability distributions. This re-port uses (geo)statistical methods to derive maps ofsoil type and soil properties from soil observationsand explanatory information. A principal property ofthese methods is that these do not only produce amap but also quantify the associated uncertainty.Also, rather than storing maps, the new prototype SoilInformation System stores geostatistical models andtheir input data, such that a map can be made uponrequest with the latest information available. Quanti-fied uncertainty is needed, among others, to analyzehow uncertainty propagates through process modelsthat use soil maps as input. Methods are illustratedwith examples from the Netherlands. Freely down-loadable from:http://library.wur.nl/way/bestanden/clc/1866662.pdf


Nitrogen Fixation in Crop Production, by David W.Emerich and Hari B. Krishnan (Eds). Hardcover, 422pages, 2009; ASA, CSSA, SSSA. Agron. Monogr. 52.ISBN: 978-0-89118-170-5.

The only book of its kind to presentthe science, application, and politicsof the use of nitrogen-fixing cropplants across the globe in variousenvironments, Nitrogen Fixation inCrop Production is a problem-solv-ing look forward to the next GreenRevolution. Nitrogen fixation can

help provide a growing population with a nutritious,environmentally friendly, sustainable food supply.From new “omics” approaches to the role of nitrogenfixation in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, fromfarming strategies in nonindustrialized nations to ni-trogen fixation in the global economy, scientists willfind the key issues and expanding research areas, andhow they contribute to the next wave of advance-ments related to agriculture and the environment.

The Role of Fertilizer in Integrated Plant NutrientManagement, by Mark Alley and Bernard Vanlauwe,IFA Paris, 2009.

This booklet is written for farmers,students, researchers, extensionpersonnel, agribusiness represen-tatives and policy makers to pro-vide an overview of the conceptsof Integrated Plant Nutrient Man-agement (IPNM) and IntegratedSoil Fertility Management (ISFM).Integrated Plant Nutrient Man-

agement focuses on efficiently utilizing all availablesources of essential nutrients for crops. IntegratedSoil Fertility Management provides a framework formanaging soil fertility to sustain and improving soilquality and production capacity. The combination ofthese concepts provides a holistic view of providingplant nutrients and maintaining and/or enhancingsoil productivity. Specific aspects of IPNM and ISFMare discussed, as well as the use of nutrient budgetsfor assessing nutrient use on a farm, watershed, re-gional or national basis. It is hoped that this bookletwill lead to more efficient use of plant nutrients forincreasing food production and sustaining and in-creasing soil productivity in an environmentally sen-sitive manner. You can download it at:www.fertilizer.org or order hardcopies from the IFASecretariat sending an e-mail to: [email protected]

Soil: Earth’s living skin (Dossiers d’Agropolis Inter-national n°8), by Benoît Jaillard (INRA) and RolandPoss (IRD), 52 pp. 2009 (in French and English).

The main objective of this“dossier” is to provide a betterunderstanding and a betterknowledge of the competenceand of the potential of the sev-eral hundreds of scientists in-volved in soil research andteaching located in southernFrance–a major European hub of

activities in soil science. It also aims at facilitatingthe contacts for the development of scientific andtechnical exchanges and cooperations. This “dossier”was certified by the French committee of the Inter-national Year of Planet Earth. Table of content: Soilsproduce food and clothing for people; Soils regulateinland water flow; Soils regulate biogeochemical nu-trient and pollutant cycling; Soils are living environ-ments that harbour multifunctional organisms; Soilsmaintain an evolutionary record of ecosystems andhumankind. Download this brochure from:www.agropolis.org/pdf/Dossiers-Sols-Eng-52p.pdfContact: Nathalie Villeméjeanne, Agropolis Interna-tional – [email protected]

Contaminant Geochemistry: Interactions and Trans-port in the Subsurface Environment. BrianBerkowitz, Ishai Dror & Bruno Yaron, Springer 2008ISBN: 978-3-540-74381-1.

This book combines soil science,subsurface hydrology and envi-ronmental geochemistry, provid-ing a comprehensive backgroundfor specialists interested in theprotection and sustainable man-agement of the subsurface envi-ronment in soils vadose zone, andground water. Initially the reader

is introduced to the characterization of subsurfaceenvironment, to selected geochemical processes,and the chemistry of selected contaminants in thesoil and subsurface. The major focus of the book ison contaminant partitioning and reactions in porousmedia solid phases, soil solutions, and groundwater,accounting for their persistence and transformationin the subsurface, as they are transported from theland surface into groundwater. Case studies discus-sions are provided for each part of the book illus-trating many of the subjects presented.

N OV E M B E R 2009 43

Frontiers in Soil Science Research: Report of a Work-shop, by the Steering Committee for Frontiers in SoilScience Research, National Research Council. Paper-back, 80 pages, 2009; National Academies Press.ISBN: 978-0-309-13891-8.

Interest in soil science has been re-newed with the recognition that bio-geochemical processes occurring atthe Earth’s surface influence globalclimate change, land degradationand remediation, soil and water con-servation and quality, food suffi-ciency and safety, and many other

issues pertinent to the stewardship of land andwater resources. Addressing these challenges will re-quire advances in soil science research that need tobe communicated to all stakeholders. In December2005, the National Academies convened the Fron-tiers in Soil Science Research Workshop, summarizedin this volume, to identify emerging research areasby addressing the interaction of soil science subdis-ciplines, collaborative research with other disci-plines, and the use of new technologies in research.http://www.nap.edu/catalog/12666.html

Manual of Methods for Soil and Land Evaluation.Editor Edoardo A. C. Costantini. Science Publishers,Enfield, 2009. 600 pp. ISBN 978-1-57808-571-2. The goal of the manual is to supply an operationaltool for pedologists, agronomists, environmentalists,and all of the other specialists who carry out landevaluation for agriculture and forestry or, more gen-erally, stakeholders and policy makers who make de-cisions at the local level based on the knowledge ofthe nature of soil. Discussion of the topics is not onlytechnical and operational, but also in-depth and di-dactic; therefore, the text may also be used as a validcomplement for students majoring in subjects thatinvolve soil use, management and conservation. Theliterature offers a wide choice of possible soil andland evaluation methods, while knowledge of the re-lationships existing between the physical character-istics of lands, particularly those of soils, and therequirements of specific uses is limited.

Chemical Elements in Plants and Soil: ParametersControlling Essentiality. By Fränzle, Stefan 2009, Ap-prox. 180 p., Hardcover ISBN: 978-90-481-2751-1.Earlier works on plant essential elements have re-vealed a series of complicated, counter-intuitive re-lationships among various chemical elements indifferent plant species, due to both unlike usage of

certain elements in plants and to dif-ferent carriers effecting resorption andtransport. In an attempt to provide amore coherent theory behind plantmineral nutrition, this groundbreakingbook adopts a very different approach

from the existing literature, presenting an explana-tion of the essentiality of chemical elements in bio-logical systems and the application of stoichiometricnetwork analysis (SNA) to the biological system ofelements. Starting with data from biochemical envi-ronmental analysis, and a discussion of the phe-nomena involved in metal ion partition andautocatalytic behaviour, conditions and criteria con-trolling the partition of metals into biomass are in-vestigated. Several rules are derived andinvestigated in terms of their interaction both incomparisons among contemporary organisms and interms of evolution. This allows the construction, forexample of a map which directly traces the biologi-cal feature of essentiality to parameters of coordi-nation chemistry.

Plant Nutrition of Greenhouse Crops. By Sonneveld,Cees, Voogt, Wim. 2009, XV, 431 p., Hardcover ISBN:978-90-481-2531-9.

Greenhouse cultivation is noted for itshigh uptake of minerals, consistent cli-matic conditions, exclusion of naturalprecipitation and control of salt accu-mulation. Acknowledging that plantnutrition in greenhouse cultivationdiffers in many essentials from field

production, this volume details specific informationabout testing methods for soils and substrates in agreenhouse environment. It does so while offering auniversally applicable analysis. This is based on thecomposition of the soil and substrate solutions,methods for the interpretation of tissue tests, andcrop responses on salinity and water supply in rela-tion to fertilizer application. Fertilizer additions, re-lated to analytical data of soil and substrate samples,are presented for a wide range of vegetable and or-namental crops. The subject is especially apt now assubstrate growing offers excellent possibilities forthe optimal use of water and nutrients, as well asthe potential for sustainable production methods forgreenhouse crops.

Fire Effects on Soils and Restoration Strategies. Ed-ited by: Artemi Cerdà and Peter R. Robichaud. 2009Science Publishers, USA. ISBN 978-1-57808-526-2.


This book has been published a decadeafter Fire’s Effects on Ecosystems byDeBano, Neary, and Folliott (1998),and builds on their foundation to up-date knowledge on natural post-fireprocesses and describe the use and ef-fectiveness of various restoration

strategies that may be applied when human inter-vention is warranted. The chapters in this book, writ-ten by leading scientists, have been compiled toprovide relevant and accessible information to stu-dents, land managers, and policy-makers as well asother scientists.

Thin on the Ground: Land Resource Survey inBritish Overseas Territories, by Anthony Young. TheMemoir Club, 2007, paperback 978-1-84104-175-9,£14.50.

Gives an account of soil survey andother types of land resource surveyfor agriculture in 48 tropical andsubtropical countries of the formerBritish Commonwealth. Beginningwith the pioneering period betweenthe two world wars, the main ac-count covers what is referred to as

the "golden age" of soil survey, 1950-1975. Thework of soil surveyors in the colonial service wascontinued after countries achieved independence bythe Land Resources Division and in surveys by FAOand consultant companies. The author draws uponhis own extensive experience together with ac-counts by over 90 former soil surveyors. The uses towhich surveys were put, including reasons for insuf-ficient use, are discussed. The final chapter is a ret-rospect on the achievements of these surveys, andwhat should be the role of the field study of soils, in-cluding soil monitoring, in land resource develop-ment at the present day.

N OV E M B E R 2009 45

IUSS Honorary members


Year Member Country Year Member Country

1924 L. Cayeux † France

K. Glinka † USSR

Jos. Kopecky † Czechoslovakia

E. Ramann † Germany

Sir John Russell † UK

S. Winogradski † USSR

1927 P. Treitz † Hungary

1935 E.A. Mitscherlich † Germany

A. d’Sigmond † Hungary

J. Stoklasa † Czechoslovakia

G. Wiegner † Switzerland

1950 A. Demolon † France

D.J. Hissink † Netherlands

W.P. Kelley † USA

1954 S. Ma�son † Sweden

E. Truog † USA

1956 G. Bertrand † France

E.C.J. Mohr † Netherlands

1960 F.A. Bear † USA

1964 J.A. Presco� † Australia

1968 F. Hardy † UK

W.L. Kubiena † Germany

L.A. Richards † USA

A.A. Rode † USSR

1974 R. Bradfield † USA

G.V. Jacks † UK

Ch.E. Kellogg † USA

M.K. Kononova † USSR

A. Oudin † France

F. Scheffer † Germany

1978 G. Barbier † France

V. Igna�eff † Canada

Y. Ishizuka † Japan

L. Krolikowski † Poland

L. Ve�ori † Brazil

1982 Ph. Duchaufour † France

W. Flaig † Germany

V. Kovda † USSR

E. Mueckenhausen † Germany

E.W. Russell † UK

1986 H. Jenny † USA

D. Kirkham † USA

S.K. Mukherjee † India

R. Tavernier † Belgium

1990 G. Aubert † France

E.G. Hallsworth † Australia

J.S. Kanwar India

P. Schachtschabel † Germany

R.W. Simonson † USA

I. Szabolcs † Hungary

1998 G.H. Bolt Netherlands

R. Dudal Belgium

K.H. Hartge † Germany

M. Kutilek Czech Rep.

J. Quirk Australia

W.G. Sombroek † Netherlands

K. Wada Japan

D.H. Yaalon Israel

S.V. Zonn † Russia

2002 R.W. Arnold USA

G.V. Dobrovolsky Russia

W. Gardner USA

H.M. Hamdi † Egypt

L.A.L. Sarmiento † Colombia

F. Mancini Italy

B.S. Nosko Ukraine

R. Rosell Argentina

A. Ruellan France

A. Tanaka Japan

P.B.H Tinker UK

2006 W.E.H. Blum Austria

H-P. Blume Germany

J. Bouma Netherlands

S-J. Cho South Korea

J. Glinski Poland

M.G.H. Jamagne France

D.R. Nielsen USA

J.H.V. van Baren † Netherlands

L.P. Wilding USA

N OV E M B E R 2009 47

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