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THE CHEMISTRY OF SOIL CONSTITUENTS

Dr. D.J.Greenland, Dr. Michael H.B.Hayes
  • Country of Origin:

  • Imprint:

    NIPA

  • eISBN:

    9789391383800

  • Binding:

    EBook

  • Number Of Pages:

    482

  • Language:

    English

Individual Price: 3,995.00 INR 3,595.50 INR + Tax

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Since the beginning of this century production of chemical fertilizers has increased many fold, and the production of pesticides for addition to the soil has become a new major industry. These are not the only chemicals added to the soil, because by accident or design many other chemicals which enter the environment end up in the soil. The soil has to produce the bulk of the food and fiber to sustain this growing population. In this volume a short historical outline of the development of soil science is given, touching briefly on soil formation, soil physics, and soil biology, as it can be misleading to regard soils simply as chemical entities. It is also important to have some appreciation of the several processes which have produced the particular soil found at any one place. The major soil types of the world differ according to their origin. Several systems exist for classifying them, and different names are in use for the same major soil types. The most common names of these are therefore introduced. The following two chapters deal with the inorganic and organic components of soils respectively. The chemical structures of the major inorganic components are now reasonably well known, but this is not true of the organic (or humic) materials in soils. The relevant chapter presents an account of what has been experimentally established regarding the constitution of the peculiarly intractable complex of organic compounds found in soils. Chemical processes in soils are largely determined by reactions at the surfaces of the soil colloids. The final three chapters are therefore concerned with the nature and extent of the surfaces of soil colloids, their electrical characteristics, and the ways in which ions and water are held and arranged at the surfaces.

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Since the beginning of this century production of chemical fertilizers has increased many fold, and the production of pesticides for addition to the soil has become a new major industry. These are not the only chemicals added to the soil, because by accident or design many other chemicals which enter the environment end up in the soil. The world population, increasing at a conservative estimate of 2 per cent per annum, doubles in less than thirty-five years. The soil has to produce the bulk of the food and fibre to sustain this growing population. If the soil is to continue to be both the source of our foodstuffs and the sink for many of our wastes, it is obviously desirable that we understand its complex chemistry. Much scientific endeavour has been directed to this end in the past few decades, resulting in a large volume of published literature, including several books concerned with the chemistry of the mineral or organic components of soils, or with certain chemical processes in soils. No recent book has however attempted to produce a coherent account of soil chemistry as a whole, suitable for both students of environmental chemistry and soil science, and for the very wide range of research and other scientists who are interested in the chemistry of soils. The original intention of the editors of the present book was to attempt to fill this gap. Because of the very diverse topics involved it was felt that it would have to be written by several authors if it was to be appropriately authoritative. The chemistry of soils falls naturally into two parts, the chemistry of the various soil components, and the chemistry of soil processes. It was at first intended that these, the static and dynamic aspects of soils, should form two parts of a single volume. However to deal with the topics involved at the intended level would have produced an unwieldy volume, and so two companion volumes are being issued, The Chemistry of Soil Constituents’ and The Chemistry of Soil Processes’. In this first volume a short historical outline of the development of soil science is given, touching briefly on soil formation, soil physics, and soil biology, as it can be misleading to regard soils simply as chemical entities. It is also important to have some appreciation of the several processes which have produced the particular soil found at any one place. The major soil types of the world differ according to their origin. Several systems exist for classifying them, and different names are in use for the same major soil types. The most common names of these are therefore introduced. The following two chapters deal with the inorganic and organic components of soils respectively. The chemical structures of the major inorganic components are now reasonably well known, but this is not true of the organic (or humic) materials in soils. The relevant chapter presents an account of what has been experimentally established regarding the constitution of the peculiarly intractable complex of organic compounds found in soils. Chemical processes in soils are largely determined by reactions at the surface., of the soil colloids. The final three chapters are therefore concerned with the nature and extent of the surfaces of soil colloids, their electrical characteristics, and the ways in which ions and water are held and arranged at the surfaces. It is hoped that a sufficient understanding will have been provided of the chemistry of the major constituents of soils to enable the processes described in the companion volume to be fully comprehended.

 
1 Soils and soil chemistry
D. J. Greenland, M. H. B. Hayes

1.1 THE IMPORTANCE OF SOILS Soils are the medium in which crops grow, and so they are essential to the provision of the food and fibre to sustain mankind. But besides the immense importance of this role they are an essential component to life as we know it because of their action as a buffer to control the flow of water between sky, land and sea. They are also a sink, and usually a safe sink, for many of the chemicals that might otherwise make life difficult or unpleasant. As with other natural resources, it is important that soils are used conservatively, so that the advantages we enjoy from them now can continue to be enjoyed in the future. To do this we need to understand them, to understand the flow of nutrients from soil to plants, and back to the soil or the sea in food chains and water flow. We need to understand the processes by which rocks alter to form soils, and how fast or how slowly the process occurs in different conditions. We need to understand the decay of plant materials in the soil, and how the products of decay help to make the soil a better place for plants to grow. The chemistry of the constituents of soils, and of the processes by which changes occur, is not simple. Nevertheless we have learnt much about it, and can apply that knowledge to ensure that soils continue their important functions, and are not exploited so that they become infertile, nor used in such a way that the fertile topsoil is lost by erosion by wind or water.

1 - 28 (28 Pages)
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2 The structures and chemistry of soil clay minerals
G. Brown, A. C. D. Newman, J. H. Rayner, A. H. Weir

2.1 INTRODUCTION Textural assessment has long been used to indicate quality in agricultural soil and although it contains an element of subjective judgement, a skilled surveyor can differentiate many grades of texture. Soil texture correlates with the distribution of particle size in the soil, though this is not the only component in texture. Although particle size distribution is an objective attribute of soils and can, in principle, be measured with accuracy, the determination is in practice quite difficult and certainly laborious, so that it is customary in soil mechanical analysis to divide the soil into several broad fractions: sand, silt and clay are the principal categories. The clay fraction, which comprises the smallest particles in the soil, is generally defined as the fraction smaller than a nominal diameter of 2 jam. The practical division is, however, based on the velocity of fall of soil particles through a fluid, calculating the diameter of the particles from the equation of Stokes

29 - 178 (150 Pages)
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3 The chemistry of soil organic colloids
M. H. B. Hayes, R. S. Swift

3.1 INTRODUCTION The complete soil organic fraction is made up of live organisms, and their undecomposed, partly decomposed and completely transformed remains. Soil organic matter is the term used to refer more specifically to the non-living components which are a heterogeneous mixture composed largely of products resulting from microbial and chemical transformations of organic debris. These transformations, known collectively as the humification process, give rise to humus, a mixture of substances which have a degree of resistance to further microbial attack.

179 - 320 (142 Pages)
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4 Surfaces of soil particles
D. J. Greenland, C. J. B. Mott

4.1 INTRODUCTION It has been suggested that the relationship of surface chemistry to soil science is similar to that of biochemistry to biology. Certainly the fact that surfaces of soil particles are extensive and reactive leads to a dominance of surface chemistry in soil behaviour, but it is not an exclusive relationship, because many precipitation reactions, oxidation and reduction processes, and biological reactions take place more or less independently of the surface processes. Nevertheless it is difficult to understand soil properties fully without an appreciation of the nature and extent of the surfaces of the soil constituents, and this chapter is devoted to a discussion of this topic.

321 - 354 (34 Pages)
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5 Surface-electrolyte interactions
P. W. Arnold

5.1 INTRODUCTION: THE PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY OF COLLOIDAL SUSPENSIONS This chapter is concerned with understanding the factors which influence the partition of ions between solid surfaces and aqueous solutions. There are many aspects of soil science such as some of those concerned with soil formation, transfer of nutrient ions from soil particles to plant roots, soil pollutant interaction and soil management which are critically dependent on what happens in the space of the order of 1 nm wide between solid and equilibrium solution. A broad survey of the development of ideas on soil-electrolyte interaction shows that there have been two main avenues of approach. One views the soil as an electrically charged surface with its adsorbed hydrated ions as one phase in equilibrium with solution, which is seen as the second phase. The other approach focuses on the electrical double layer extending from the charged solid surface out into the solution. In the latter approach the solid surface, the outer equilibrium solution and the make up of the transition zone between these two phases must all be involved in any detailed consideration of the micro structure of the system. For a full and proper understanding of soil-electrolyte interaction anything less than a detailed analysis of the micro-structure is likely to be inadequate and in this it must be remembered that the interaction between electrical double layers which overlap with one another is likely to be important.

355 - 404 (50 Pages)
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6 Water on particle surfaces
V. C. Farmer

6.1 INTRODUCTION Water in soils is essential to plant growth, being the medium through which inorganic nutrients are translocated to the root surface and carried through the plant. Most of the water in soils at or near field saturation can be considered as equivalent to bulk water, and only bulk properties need be considered in discussing its movement through soil interstices and its retention in soil capillaries; this is the field with which soil physics deals. But, in the first molecular layer in contact with soil particles, and perhaps for several molecular layers beyond, the behaviour of water molecules is very different from that in the bulk. Strong adsorptive forces can reduce the volatility of these molecules and restrict their mobility. Such an adsorbed layer of water competes with other polar molecules for adsorption sites, and so has an important role in determining the release and retention of fertilizers and pesticides. Such strongly adsorbed layers confer wettability on soils, but hydrophobic surfaces can also be present and these lead to non-wettable soils with serious consequences in run off and inefficient use of precipitation. This region of distinctive molecular interactions between water and soil particles falls within the field of soil chemistry.

405 - 448 (44 Pages)
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7 End Pages

INDEX

 
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