Identifying, interpreting, and managing soil constraints are major challenges, especially when multiple constraints occur in the same soil at various depth zones. Although amelioration tools and strategies are available to manage some of these constraints, field adoption of these technologies is a major challenge to the farming community. Soil Constraints and Productivity helps in identifying and understanding soil constraints, focusing on management practices to alleviate problems associated with these restrictions, and their impacts on crop productivity.
Soil Constraints and Productivity aims to:
- Describe various amendments suitable for mitigating soil constraints
- Provide data on cost-benefit analysis of managing soil constraints
- Provide case studies of managing soil constraints to increase productivity
Soil is essential for the doubling of major grain production proposed to be necessary to avoid major food security collapses in the future. This book will be a key resource for soil and environmental scientists, farmers, students majoring in agricultural and environmental sciences, and crop consultants.
About the Author: Professor Nanthi Bolan is currently serving as the Professor of Environmental Chemistry at the Global Centre for Environmental Remediation (GCER), University of Newcastle, Australia, and Program Leader, Cooperative Centre for High Performance Soils (www.soilcrc.com.au). He also served as the Chair in Environmental Science (2007-2015) and Dean of Graduate Studies (2008-2010) at the University of South Australia (2007-2015), Professor of Soil Science at Massey University, New Zealand (1984-2006).
Professor Nanthi Bolan's teaching and research interests include agronomic value of manures, fertilisers and soil amendments, soil acidification, nutrient and carbon cycling, pesticide and metal pollutants interactions in soils, greenhouse gas emission, soil remediation, mine site revegetation, and waste management. Nanthi is a Fellow of American Soil Science Society, American Society of Agronomy and New Zealand Soil Science Society, and was awarded the Communicator of the Year award by the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Sciences. He has supervised more than 50 postgraduate students, and was awarded the Massey University Research Medal for excellence in postgraduate students' supervision. He has published more than 400 book chapters and journal papers with a H index of 77 and total citations of 24670 (Google Scholar), and is one of the Web of Science Globally Highly Cited Researchers for 2018 and 2019. He has served as Associate Editor of Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Journal of Environmental Quality.
M.B. Kirkham is University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University and a graduate of Wellesley College (B.A.) and the University of Wisconsin, Madison (M.S. and Ph.D.). Professor Kirkham's research deals with water movement in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum and uptake of heavy metals by plants grown on contaminated soil. Professor Kirkham has written three textbooks dealing with soil-plant-water relations and teaches a graduate-level class on soil-plant-water relations. In addition, Professor Kirkham is the author or co-author of over 300 contributions to scientific publications and is on the editorial boards of 16 journals. Dr. Kirkham has received recognitions, including being named fellow of five societies and elected Honorary Member of the International Union of Soil Sciences.
