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A soil scientist examining horizons within a soil profile. Soil science is the study of soil as a natural resource on the surface of the Earth including soil formation, classification and mapping; physical, chemical, biological, and fertility properties of soils; and these properties in relation to the use and management of soils.
Soil chemistry is the study of the chemical characteristics of soil.Soil chemistry is affected by mineral composition, organic matter and environmental factors. In the early 1870s a consulting chemist to the Royal Agricultural Society in England, named J. Thomas Way, performed many experiments on how soils exchange ions, and is considered the father of soil chemistry. [1]
First scholarly treatment of soil forming processes Johanna Döbereiner: 1924–2000: Brazil: Prominent Brazilian agronomist Vasily V. Dokuchaev: 1840–1903: Russia: Variously the father of modern soil science, pedology, soil geography Friedrich Albert Fallou: 1794–1877: Germany: Founder of modern soil science; coined the term "pedology" W ...
Meanwhile, advances in soil chemistry, soil physics, soil mineralogy, and soil biology, as well as in the basic sciences that underlie them, have added new tools and new dimensions to the study of soil formation. As a consequence, the formation of soil has come to be treated as the aggregate of many interrelated physical, chemical, and ...
They conduct research in irrigation and drainage, tillage, soil classification, plant nutrition, soil fertility, and other areas. Although maximizing plant (and thus animal) production is a valid goal, sometimes it may come at high cost which can be readily evident (e.g. massive crop disease stemming from monoculture ) or long-term (e.g. impact ...
Soil fertility refers to the ability of soil to sustain agricultural plant growth, i.e. to provide plant habitat and result in sustained and consistent yields of high quality. [3] It also refers to the soil's ability to supply plant/crop nutrients in the right quantities and qualities over a sustained period of time.
Justus von Liebig in his book Organic chemistry in its applications to agriculture and physiology (published 1840), asserted that the chemicals in plants must have come from the soil and air and that to maintain soil fertility, the used minerals must be replaced. [268] Liebig nevertheless believed the nitrogen was supplied from the air.
As well as publishing in traditional aspects of soil biology, soil physics and soil chemistry across terrestrial ecosystems, the journal also publishes manuscripts dealing with wider interactions of soils with the environment. It was established in 1963 as the Australian Journal of Soil Research and obtained its current title in 2011.