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Elsevier

Books in Soil fertility and plant nutrition

  • Interactions Between Non-Pathogenic Soil Microorganisms And Plants

    • 1st Edition
    • Y.R. Dommergues
    • English
    Interactions between Non-Pathogenic Soil Microorganisms and Plants provides a comprehensive discussion of the non-pathogenic microorganisms associated with roots. It describes how a myriad of soil microorganisms affect plant growth, and how climatic and edaphic conditions contribute to the magnitude of microbial activity. The book is divided into 11 chapters that cover the plant-microorganism system; growth, structure, and physiology of roots; and nutrient uptake. It also explains the root exudates and exudation; energy flow in the plant; and rhizosphere. Legume symbiosis and root nodule symbioses in non-leguminous nitrogen fixing plants are also discussed. Moreover, the book explains the mycorrhizae and the impact of climatic and edaphic conditions on soil management and plant growth. The information that the book presents serves as a useful focal point for further studies on the interactions between plants and soil microorganisms. Thus, it provides an impetus for the development of agricultural practices that could improve food production, while mitigating anthropogenic pollution of agrosytems and waste of energy resources. Students, lecturers, and research workers in plant physiology and anatomy, microbiology, soil science, general ecology, and agronomy will find this book an invaluable reference for their learning and practice.

  • Inorganic Nutrition of Plants

    • 1st Edition
    • F.C. Steward
    • English
    Plant Physiology, Volume III: Inorganic Nutrition of Plants deals with the inorganic nutrition and metabolism of plants. The book explores the role of elements, other than carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, which are essential to, or used by, plants in their vital processes. It summarizes the knowledge about mineral nutrition of plants and presents a philosophy of plant nutrition in general. This volume is organized into six chapters and begins with a brief history of mineral nutrition of plants, as well as the media from which plants draw their nutrients, such as the soil and artificial culture medium. The book then discusses the requirements for specific elements, the symptoms incurred by their deficient supply, and the evidence that a given element can be considered essential. The next chapters focus on the inorganic nutrition of microorganisms, general functions of the essential nutrient elements, and the biological situations in which elementary nitrogen is converted to the organic form. The book concludes by analyzing the soil as a complex biological system and its implication for the interpretation of the nutrition of higher plants. This book is a valuable resource for those interested in plant nutrition and plant physiology.

  • Advances in Agronomy

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 107
    • English
    Advances in Agronomy continues to be recognized as a leading reference and a first-rate source for the latest research in agronomy. As always, the subjects covered are varied and exemplary of the myriad of subject matter dealt with by this long-running serial.

  • Advances in Agronomy

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 101
    • English
    Advances in Agronomy continues to be recognized as a leading reference and a first-rate source for the latest research in agronomy. As always, the subjects covered are varied and exemplary of the myriad of subject matter dealt with by this long-running serial.

  • Soil, Fertilizer, and Plant Silicon Research in Japan

    • 1st Edition
    • Jian Feng Ma + 1 more
    • English
    Silicon (Si) plays a significant role in the resistance of plants to multiple stresses including biotic and abiotic stresses. Silicon is also the only element that does not damage plants when accumulated in excess. However, the contribution of Si to plant growth has been largely ignored due to its universal existence in the earth's crust. From numerous intensive studies on Si, initiated in Japan about 80 years ago, Japanese scientists realized that Si was important for the healthy growth of rice and for stability of rice production. In a worldwide first, silicon was recognized as a valuable fertilizer in Japan. The beneficial effects of Si on rice growth in particular, are largely attributable to the characteristics of a silica gel that is accumulated on the epidermal tissues in rice. These effects are expressed most clearly under high-density cultivation systems with heavy applications of nitrogen. Si is therefore recognized now as an ''agronomically essential element'' in Japan.Recently, Si has become globally important because it generates resistance in many plants to diseases and pests, and may contribute to reduced rates of application of pesticides and fungicides. Silicon is also now considered as an environment-friendly element. The achievements of Si research in Japan are introduced in this book, in relation to soils, fertilizers and plant nutrition.

  • Silicon in Agriculture

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 8
    • L.E. Datnoff + 2 more
    • English
    Presenting the first book to focus on the importance of silicon for plant health and soil productivity and on our current understanding of this element as it relates to agriculture.Long considered by plant physiologists as a non-essential element, or plant nutrient, silicon was the center of attention at the first international conference on Silicon in Agriculture, held in Florida in 1999.Ninety scientists, growers, and producers of silicon fertilizer from 19 countries pondered a paradox in plant biology and crop science. They considered the element Si, second only to oxygen in quantity in soils, and absorbed by many plants in amounts roughly equivalent to those of such nutrients as sulfur or magnesium. Some species, including such staples as rice, may contain this element in amounts as great as or even greater than any other inorganic constituent. Compilations of the mineral composition of plants, however, and much of the plant physiological literature largely ignore this element. The participants in Silicon in Agriculture explored that extraordinary discrepancy between the silicon content of plants and that of the plant research enterprise.The participants, all of whom are active in agricultural science, with an emphasis on crop production, presented, and were presented with, a wealth of evidence that silicon plays a multitude of functions in the real world of plant life. Many soils in the humid tropics are low in plant available silicon, and the same condition holds in warm to hot humid areas elsewhere. Field experience, and experimentation even with nutrient solutions, reveals a multitude of functions of silicon in plant life. Resistance to disease is one, toleration of toxic metals such as aluminum, another. Silicon applications often minimize lodging of cereals (leaning over or even becoming prostrate), and often cause leaves to assume orientations more favorable for light interception. For some crops, rice and sugarcane in particular, spectacular yield responses to silicon application have been obtained. More recently, other crop species including orchids, daisies and yucca were reported to respond to silicon accumulation and plant growth/disease control. The culture solutions used for the hydroponic production of high-priced crops such as cucumbers and roses in many areas (The Netherlands for example) routinely included silicon, mainly for disease control. The biochemistry of silicon in plant cell walls, where most of it is located, is coming increasingly under scrutiny; the element may act as a crosslinking element between carbohydrate polymers.There is an increased conviction among scientists that the time is at hand to stop treating silicon as a plant biological nonentity. The element exists, and it matters.

  • Advances in Agronomy

    • 1st Edition
    • Volume 57
    • English
    Volume 57 contains six outstanding and comprehensive reviews on various agronomic topics. With this latest volume, Advances in Agronomy continues to be recognized as a prolific and first-rate reference by the scientific community. In 1993 Advances in Agronomy increased its publication frequency to three volumes per year, and will continue this trend as the breadth of agronomic inquiry and knowledge continues to grow.