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BOOK REVIEW

Handbook of Processes and Modeling in the Soil–Plant System

Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. 7250 NW 62nd Ave. Johnston, IA 50131

(zhanshan.dong{at}pioneer.com)

Edited by Dinesh K. Benbi and Rolf Nieder, Food Products Press and The Haworth Reference Press, imprints of The Haworth Press, Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580. 2003. 762 p. $89.95 softcover. ISBN 1-56022-915-2.

Soil is a fundamental requirement of life on the earth. Most plants rely on soil for physical support and nutrition supply. Animal and other low forms of organisms, in turn, use organic matter produced by plants for food. Correct and efficient soil management methods rely always on the thorough understanding of physical, chemical, and biological processes occurring in soil that form a very sophisticated interrelated network system. To understand the complex network system, it is important to explore every component by all means. Presenting both the fundamental processes occurring in the system and a variety of related modeling approaches in one book makes it quite valuable.

The book can be divided into five parts. Chapters 1 through 3 review the physical, chemical, and biological processes of soil properties in general. The three chapters cover energy and matter flow, dynamics of organic and inorganic matter, and biological activities within the network system.

Since soil formation and degradation and other closely related substances and processes are critical for soil structure, water, nutrition, and productivity, Chapters 4 through 9 describe humic substances, radioactivity, and soil formation and degradation processes. Chapter 4 reviews recent research results on the conformational structure of humic substances. The formation processes of parental material, surface soil, and lower soil horizons and the corresponding modeling approaches are discussed in Chapter 5. The deposition, behavior, and transfer of radionuclides in the soil-plant system and the corresponding modeling approaches are given in Chapter 6. Chapters 7 through 9 focus on soil degradation processes (i.e., soil acidification, alkalinization, and wind and water erosion) and corresponding modeling approaches.

Chapters 10 through 19 describe the dynamics and modeling approaches of all essential soil matter including water, solutes, carbon dioxide, organic matter, major nutrient elements (i.e., nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium), secondary nutrient elements (i.e., sulfur, calcium, and magnesium), trace and toxic elements (e.g., copper, zinc, boron, lead, arsenic, etc.), and agrochemicals (e.g., herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, nematicides, and plant growth regulators). A variety of modeling approaches, concepts, and application examples are presented in these chapters. The modeling approaches integrate physical and chemical processes in the complex network system. From my point of view, they are quite useful to people working in the fields of dynamic modeling, especially for model development and application.

In the soil–plant–atmosphere network system, plant species play a crucial role in plant production. Therefore, the simulation of plant growth and development in the system is a necessary component. Chapters 20 and 21 discuss the concept of modeling crop growth and development and crop responses to plant growth regulators.

Thoughtfully, the last chapter gives readers an overview of the potential and limitations of modeling approaches. It discusses generic issues related to modeling, such as scale and hierarchy, determinism and stochasticity, error and nonlinearity, parameterization and validation, and development and applications of models.

This book is suitable for professionals, faculty, graduates, and senior undergraduates in soil and environmental sciences as well as crop science. It can be a handy reference book for soil scientists or an advanced textbook for graduates in soil science. A must-mention merit of this book is that a wealth of citations including an enormous number of very recent ones will benefit scientific professionals and graduates.

This Article Full Text (PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Dong, Z. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Dong, Z. Agricola Articles by Dong, Z.