| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
|
|
|
|||||||
|
|||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Many pedologists share the sentiment that a more comprehensive textbook is needed for the field of soil genesis and geomorphology. Schaetzl and Anderson have published a textbook that comes close to satisfying this need. As stated in the preface, their goal is to "produce a soil science text that could serve both as an initial soils text and as a cutting-edge resource book of research grade." While reviewing this text, I have also frequently used it as a resource.
The text is organized into three parts: (1) The Building Blocks of the Soil, 2) Soil Genesis: From Parent Material to Soil, and 3) Soil Geomorphology. The book is well written and organized in a meaningful fashion. The writing style, however, is not entirely consistent; some chapters are quite brief and less descriptive than others. The authors have compiled an extensive bibliography and have diligently crystallized a large body of literature into an easily readable form, a definite plus for students. Nearly every page contains at least one (often several) highly relevant and effective figure or table, most of which have been redrawn from the literature and are of high quality.
In Part 1 (Chapters 1–7), the authors provide background in soil science and the descriptive tools used in pedology. This section begins with a brief introduction followed by chapters on basic concepts in soil science, including morphology, horizons, mineralogy, physics, organisms, and classification and mapping. In most instances, the chapters are overly generalized, to the point where they are not helpful in preparing the reader for concepts discussed in subsequent sections or to provide a college-level background in soil science. Key concepts have been excluded from Part 1; for example, no chapter exists to introduce soil chemistry and biogeochemistry, which if presented in detail, would provide helpful background for later chapters that deal with weathering and processes of soil formation. More detail would also benefit Chapter 2 to include specifics on how soils are described, a key aspect of soil genesis and geomorphology. Chapters 3 and 7, however, nicely outline soil horizon designations and classification. Because of its overly generalized nature, the material in much of this section may not be useful for college-level courses.
Part 2 (Chapters 8–12) is an excellent synthesis of mainstream and less-conventional pedologic paradigms. It contains a great deal of useful material for graduate or undergraduate college courses in soil genesis. Chapters 8–10 emphasize the factors and processes that form soils and present an original discussion and comparison of several models of soil genesis, a concept that is missing from other textbooks in this field. Chapters 11 and 12 provide an outstanding summary of processes, models, and concepts of soil formation that should be read by all students studying soils. The strength of this section is that it emphasizes many less-traditional concepts of soil genesis as well as the more accepted theories. The figures here are exceptional. This section is ideal reading material for college courses in soil genesis and geomorphology.
The third and final part (Chapters 13–16), blends geomorphology case studies with concepts in hydrology, dating techniques, and paleoenvironmental reconstruction, followed by a brief conclusion and perspectives chapter. Chapter 13, titled "Soil Geomorphology and Hydrology," is informative but would benefit from a more thorough discussion of how soil stratigraphy influences hillslope and watershed hydrology. Chapter 14 contains several excellent examples of quantitative approaches to surface exposure dating. Chapter 15 is very informative, providing thorough descriptions of pedologic approaches in paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Perhaps lacking in this section is an emphasis of the applied nature of soil genesis and geomorphology, although this is not the focus of the text. Chapters 14 and 15 would be quite useful in graduate courses in pedology and paleoecology.
As with other textbooks in this field, this book contains some gaps and minor weaknesses. Parts of this text will be very useful in the classroom, whereas other portions may be less so, depending on the scope of the course. The greatest strength of this text is that it offers a fresh look at soil genesis, blending a variety of concepts and paradigms of the science that are not traditionally addressed together. It serves as an excellent summary of pedogenic theory and should occupy the shelves of all pedologists and students of soil science. Likewise, it would serve as very useful text for other disciplines, particularly the field sciences such as ecology, geology, range management, forestry, and geomorphology. The overwhelming effort dedicated to compiling such a long list of figures from peer-reviewed literature makes this a tremendous resource for students and teachers. Overall, I found this text to be a very good resource.
Dep. of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California, Davis, CA 95616
*Corresponding author (atogeen{at}ucdavis.edu).
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HOME | HELP | FEEDBACK | SUBSCRIPTIONS | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
