The Soil Underfoot Infinite Possibilities for a Finite Resource

Section I Future Challenges
Climate Change: An Underfoot Perspective?
Kevin R. Tate and Benny K. G. Theng
Soils and the Future of Food: Challenges and Opportunities for Feeding Nine Billion People
Sharon J. Hall
Soil Loss
Nikolaus J. Kuhn
The Finite Soil Resource for Sustainable Development: The Case of Taiwan
Zeng-Yei Hseu and Zueng-Sang Chen
The Far Future of Soil
Peter K. Haff

Section II Valuing Soils
Seeing Soil
Deborah Koons Garcia
Picturing Soil: Aesthetic Approaches to Raising Soil Awareness in Contemporary Art
Alexandra Toland and Gerd Wessolek
Principles for Sustaining Sacred Soil
Norman Habel
Indigenous Māori Values, Perspectives, and Knowledge of Soils in Aotearoa-New Zealand: Beliefs, and Concepts of Soils, the Environment, and Land
Garth Harmsworth and Nick Roskruge
Integrative Development between Soil Science and Confucius’ Philosophy
Xinhua Peng
Soil: Natural Capital Supplying Valuable Ecosystem Services
Brent Clothier and Mary Beth Kirkham

Section III Culture and History
Bread and Soil in Ancient Rome: A Vision of Abundance and an Ideal of Order Based on Wheat, Grapes, and Olives
Bruce R. James, Winfried E. H. Blum, and Carmelo Dazzi
The Anatolian Soil Concept of the Past and Today
Erhan Akça and Selim Kapur
Deconstructing the Leipsokouki: A Million Years (Or So) of Soils and Sediments in Rural Greece
Richard B. Doyle and Mary E. Savina
Knowledge of Soil and Land in Ancient Indian Society
Pichu Rengasamy
The Evolution of Paddy Rice and Upland Cropping in Japan with Reference to Soil Fertility and Taxation
Masanori Okazaki and Koyo Yonebayashi
Importance of Soils in Farming-Centric Lessons for Life and Culture in Korea
Rog-Young Kim, Su-Jung Kim, E. Jin Kim, and Jae E. Yang
Terra Preta: The Mysterious Soils of the Amazon
Antoinette M. G. A. WinklerPrins
Modern Landscape Management Using Andean Technology Developed by the Inca Empire
Francisco Mamani-Pati, David E. Clay, and Hugh Smeltekop
Indigenous Māori Values, Perspectives, and Knowledge of Soils in Aotearoa-New Zealand: B. Māori Use and Knowledge of Soils over Time
Garth Harmsworth and Nick Roskruge
Potash, Passion, and a President: Early Twentieth-Century Debates on Soil Fertility in the United States
Edward R. Landa
Soil and Salts in Bernard Palissy’s (1510–1590) View: Was he the Pioneer of the Mineral Theory of Plant Nutrition?
Christian Feller and Jean-Paul Aeschlimann

Section IV Technologies and Uses
Poetry in Motions: The Soil Excreta Cycle
Rebecca Lines-Kelly
Global Potential for a New Subsurface Water Retention Technology: Converting Marginal Soil into Sustainable Plant Production
Alvin J. M. Smucker and Bruno Basso
Double Loop Learning in a Garden
Richard Stirzaker
Valuing the Soil: Connecting Land, People, and Nature in Scotland
John E. Gordon, Patricia M. C. Bruneau, and Vanessa Brazier
Sports Surface Design: The Purposeful Manipulation of Soils
Richard Gibbs

Section V Future Strategies
Soil Biophysics: The Challenges
Iain M. Young and John W. Crawford
Life in Earth: A Truly Epic Production
Karl Ritz
Sustaining "The Genius of Soils"
Garrison Sposito

Index

Biography

G. Jock Churchman holds a BSc(Hons) and a PhD in chemistry from Otago University in his native New Zealand, and a BA(Hons) in philosophy from Flinders University of South Australia. He was a post-doctoral fellow in the Soils Department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was then employed in the New Zealand Soil Bureau, DSIR for 16 years and in CSIRO Division of Soils (later Land and Water) for 14 years. He also held visiting fellowships at Reading University (1 year) and the University of Western Australia (6 months). Currently he is adjunct senior lecturer in soils at the University of Adelaide and part-time associate professor in the Centre for Environment Risk Assessment and Remediation at the University of South Australia. His research has been centered on clays. He is currently (2010–2014) chair of the IUSS Commission on the History, Philosophy and Sociology of Soil Science.

Edward R. Landa holds an MS and PhD in soil science from the University of Minnesota, and is an adjunct professor in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology at the University of Maryland, College Park. His work at the U.S. Geological Survey from 1978 to 2013 focused on the fate and transport of radionuclides and metals in soils and aquatic systems. Throughout his career, Ed has had an active interest in the history of science and technology, and has published on the radium extraction industry, description of color in science and art, and depictions of soils in films. He co-edited Soil and Culture (Springer, 2010) with Christian Feller, and has served as the chair (2006–2010) and vice chair (2010–2014) of the Commission on the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Soil Science of the International Union of Soil Sciences.

"…the book includes a varied selection of papers and should encourage soil scientists to have a wider perspective on their subject."
—D.A. Davidson, in European Journal of Soil Science