Essential Soil Science: A Clear and Concise Introduction to Soil Science

by Mark Ashman, Geeta Puri

This textbook is aimed at the majority of students, who need to quickly acquire a concise overview of soil science. Many current soil science textbooks still cater for a traditional student market where students embark on three years study in a narrow discipline. The growth in modular degree schemes has meant that soil science is now often taught as self-standing unit as part of broad based degree program. Students pursuing this type of course are increasingly reluctant to purchase expensive textbooks that are too detailed and often assume a scientific background. For those opting to specialise in soil science there are a variety of good textbooks to choose from. This short informative guide, will be particularly useful for students who do not possess a traditional scientific background, such as those studying geography, environment science, ecology and agriculture.

Genres: Nonfiction, Agriculture, Gardening, Science

208 pages, Paperback

First published April 29, 2002

Reviews

[Randy Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

My route to this book was circuitous. In March of this year I read an article by Elizabeth Kolbert in the New York Review of Books about soil and waste in which she discussed the U.S. Soil Taxonomy and its classification of twelve soil types. For some unknown reason the notion of a soil taxonomy fascinated me so I bought the book. I have worked with taxonomies for a significant chunk of my career so I was pretty sure I would understand this soil taxonomy. Wrong. Soil is a extremely slippery (sorry!) subject to categorize and the many great groups and sub groups, horizons and processes quickly overwhelmed me. I decided that I would need more understanding of soil to make sense of soil taxonomy.

Hence I bought this book. The subtitle is ‘a clear and concise introduction to soil science.’ I would agree with that. For a topic of great complexity and considerable chemistry, I was able to complete this book and get out of it a basic understanding of soil. What I didn’t get was much help with was the byzantine and much more opaque world of soil taxonomy.

But just as I stumbled upon this book from an excitement about mollisols, I got very excited by figure 4.1 on page 69 which included an eighteen prong taxonomy of bacteria which demonstrates the relationship between bacteria and the rest of life. I swear I heard the sound of harps when I gazed upon it as if I were Sir Francis Drake ‘discovering’ the San Francisco Bay. I drew a pink replica of this figure and I left off all the labels and explanations. Instead I used the book’s diagram to memorized the eighteen prongs and to gain a very basic sense of their meanings. Every morning at about 6am, I studied this figure for ten to fifteen minutes until I had somewhat mastered the diagram and came to realize that this diagram, the shape of which excited me, was in many ways the single most valuable diagram of life on planet Earth. From this diagram in this book I purchased a textbook on microbiology and now I am studying bacteria with my goal being to commune with the forms that live ever so happily inside me.

[Noodles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the title describes it perfectly. It spins through the whole subject very fast (less than 200 pages), giving a short intro into all the areas that a soil scientist would learn about in so much more depth. For me, this was mostly enough detail. It's a bit sciency, but not too hard. It is an introductory science textbook, not a popular science one, so the level seemed about right.
It's aimed more at commercial intensive farming or a government agency vibe, rather than gardening or understanding natural ecosystems. But the foundation is the same; if that's what you want then you can read more into that area. And this book will help understand those other aspects, add the background to what a tecchie gardener means by soil texture, structure or cation exchange capacity.
4 stars instead of 5, because in trying to make it so short they skipped over some things that deserved more space. The calculations of fertiliser application got more more space than biological health of the soil and the more ecological side of soil functioning.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The information presented in this book is important and encouraging. If more books like this are written, hopefully more light is brought to organic and harmonious methods of agriculture as opposed to conventional methods. I only rated 3-stars because it was not easy to read- needs to be more engaging, needs color diagrams as well as photographs.