Download or read book Soils and Civilizations written by Neal Eash and published by Cognella Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2013-12-19 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Introduction to Soils & Civilizations" introduces students to soil management and its importance to the stability and sustainability of civilizations. This text examines how the application of soil-science fundamentals and adequate land-use planning could have alleviated some of history s land-use disasters, including the period in the 1930s of severe, prolonged drought and extreme soil erosion known as the 'Dust Bowl.' Throughout history, major civilizations failed as soil productivity diminished as a result of deforestation and abuse of marginal lands processes that continue today. This anthology brings together the global perspectives of the foremost researchers in the field, including both classic and contemporary selections. After reading Introduction to Soils & Civilizations, students will be able to describe the factors contributing to accelerated soil erosion rates and explain the relationship between soil degradation and the fall of historic and prehistoric civilizations. Biography Dr. Neal Eash is an associate professor in the Biosystems Engineering & Soil Science Department at the University of Tennessee. His research focuses on soil fertility and carbon cycling in farming systems. He conducts ongoing no-till research in Lesotho and Mozambique, and he continues to farm his own 160-acre farm in Ohio using only no-till methods. Dr. Eash worked as an agricultural extensionist in Botswana, Africa, and collected soil samples for his M.S. degree that studied the effects of 1,500 years of near-continuous agriculture in the Colca Valley, Peru. Dr. Eash has written more than 60 publications, including one textbook and more than 30 refereed publications and he serves as an Associate Editor of Agronomy Journal."
Download or read book Dirt written by David R. Montgomery and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2007-05-14 with total page 299 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dirt, soil, call it what you want—it's everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting book finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are—and have long been—using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. A rich mix of history, archaeology and geology, Dirt traces the role of soil use and abuse in the history of Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, China, European colonialism, Central America, and the American push westward. We see how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil—as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations.
Download or read book Soil and Civilization written by and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Soils and Civilizations written by Neal Eash and published by Cognella Academic Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-29 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Topsoil and Civilization written by Tom Dale and published by . This book was released on 2003-01 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Soils and Civilizations written by Neal Eash and published by . This book was released on 2019-07-29 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction to Soils & Civilizations introduces students to soil management and its importance to the stability and sustainability of civilizations. This text examines how the application of soil-science fundamentals and adequate land-use planning could have alleviated some of history's land-use disasters, including the period in the 1930s of severe, prolonged drought and extreme soil erosion known as the 'Dust Bowl.' Throughout history, major civilizations failed as soil productivity diminished as a result of deforestation and abuse of marginal lands--processes that continue today. This anthology brings together the global perspectives of the foremost researchers in the field, including both classic and contemporary selections. After reading Introduction to Soils & Civilizations, students will be able to describe the factors contributing to accelerated soil erosion rates and explain the relationship between soil degradation and the fall of historic and prehistoric civilizations. Biography Dr. Neal Eash is an associate professor in the Biosystems Engineering & Soil Science Department at the University of Tennessee. His research focuses on soil fertility and carbon cycling in farming systems. He conducts ongoing no-till research in Lesotho and Mozambique, and he continues to farm his own 160-acre farm in Ohio using only no-till methods. Dr. Eash worked as an agricultural extensionist in Botswana, Africa, and collected soil samples for his M.S. degree that studied the effects of 1,500 years of near-continuous agriculture in the Colca Valley, Peru. Dr. Eash has written more than 60 publications, including one textbook and more than 30 refereed publications and he serves as an Associate Editor of Agronomy Journal.
Download or read book Out of the Earth written by Daniel Hillel and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1992-09-30 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A moving tribute to the physical and spiritual properties of nature's richestelement by one of the world's leading soil conservationists.
Download or read book Growing a Revolution Bringing Our Soil Back to Life written by David R. Montgomery and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2017-05-09 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Finalist for the PEN/E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award “A call to action that underscores a common goal: to change the world from the ground up.”—Dan Barber, author of The Third Plate For centuries, agricultural practices have eroded the soil that farming depends on, stripping it of the organic matter vital to its productivity. Now conventional agriculture is threatening disaster for the world’s growing population. In Growing a Revolution, geologist David R. Montgomery travels the world, meeting farmers at the forefront of an agricultural movement to restore soil health. From Kansas to Ghana, he sees why adopting the three tenets of conservation agriculture—ditching the plow, planting cover crops, and growing a diversity of crops—is the solution. When farmers restore fertility to the land, this helps feed the world, cool the planet, reduce pollution, and return profitability to family farms.
Download or read book Dirt written by David R. Montgomery and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2012-04-10 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dirt, soil, call it what you want—it's everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting book finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it's no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are—and have long been—using up Earth's soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. A rich mix of history, archaeology and geology, Dirt traces the role of soil use and abuse in the history of Mesopotamia, Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, China, European colonialism, Central America, and the American push westward. We see how soil has shaped us and we have shaped soil—as society after society has risen, prospered, and plowed through a natural endowment of fertile dirt. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations.
Download or read book World Soil Resources and Food Security written by Rattan Lal and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2011-09-13 with total page 576 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soil—The Basis of All Terrestrial Life Ancient civilizations and cultures—Mayan, Aztec, Mesopotamian, Indus, and Yangtze—were built on good soils, surviving only as long as soils had the capacity to support them. In the twenty-first century, productive soil is still the engine of economic development and essential to human well-being. The quality of our soil resources, however, is threatened by human-induced and natural perturbations. World Soil Resources and Food Security takes an in-depth look at the availability and status of soil resources in the context of the growing demands of an increasing world population and rising expectations of living standards. This timely reference presents current information on the soil resources available for food production. Presenting innovative strategies for soil and water management, it discusses how to maintain or improve the world’s soil resources in order to increase food production. With the majority of the world’s 1.02 billion food-insecure people concentrated in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, several chapters focus on soil resources in these regions. Contributions from renowned scientists deal with topics including: Global food situations World soil resources Soil resources of humid Asia and their acidification Soil resources of South Asia Properties and management of Vertisols Use of radioisotopic techniques in soil management The potential of rain-fed agriculture in the semiarid tropics The status of land degradation Nutrient balance in sub-Saharan Africa The book concludes by outlining the need for further research to generate credible data on soil resources and degradation. This volume is a useful resource for those interested in the state of the soils of the world in relation to food security and environmental quality.
Download or read book King of Fish written by David Montgomery and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-28 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The salmon that symbolize the Pacific Northwest's natural splendor are now threatened with extinction across much of their ancestral range. In studying the natural and human forces that shape the rivers and mountains of that region, geologist David Montgomery has learned to see the evolution and near-extinction of the salmon as a story of changing landscapes. Montgomery shows how a succession of historical experiences -first in the United Kingdom, then in New England, and now in the Pacific Northwest -repeat a disheartening story in which overfishing and sweeping changes to rivers and seas render the world inhospitable to salmon. In King of Fish , Montgomery traces the human impacts on salmon over the last thousand years and examines the implications both for salmon recovery efforts and for the more general problem of human impacts on the natural world. What does it say for the long-term prospects of the world's many endangered species if one of the most prosperous regions of the richest country on earth cannot accommodate its icon species? All too aware of the possible bleak outcome for the salmon, King of Fish concludes with provocative recommendations for reinventing the ways in which we make environmental decisions about land, water, and fish.
Download or read book Soil and Civilization written by Edward Hyams and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Soils written by Thomas Ronal Paton and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2023-05-31 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offers a perspective on soils as earth materials, which establishes a pedological hierarchy of materials, processes and factors, and their rationalization in terms of plate tectonics. The book should interest soil and earth scientists.
Download or read book Anthropogenic Soils written by Jeffrey Howard and published by Springer. This book was released on 2017-03-24 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a state-of-the-art review of the physical, chemical and mineralogical properties of anthropogenic soils, their genesis morphology and classification, geocultural setting, and strategies for reclamation, revitalization, use and management.
Download or read book Soil and Culture written by Edward R. Landa and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2010-01-28 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SOIL: beneath our feet / food and fiber / ashes to ashes, dust to dust / dirt!Soil has been called the final frontier of environmental research. The critical role of soil in biogeochemical processes is tied to its properties and place—porous, structured, and spatially variable, it serves as a conduit, buffer, and transformer of water, solutes and gases. Yet what is complex, life-giving, and sacred to some, is ordinary, even ugly, to others. This is the enigma that is soil. Soil and Culture explores the perception of soil in ancient, traditional, and modern societies. It looks at the visual arts (painting, textiles, sculpture, architecture, film, comics and stamps), prose & poetry, religion, philosophy, anthropology, archaeology, wine production, health & diet, and disease & warfare. Soil and Culture explores high culture and popular culture—from the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch to the films of Steve McQueen. It looks at ancient societies and contemporary artists. Contributors from a variety of disciplines delve into the mind of Carl Jung and the bellies of soil eaters, and explore Chinese paintings, African mud cloths, Mayan rituals, Japanese films, French comic strips, and Russian poetry.
Download or read book Sacred Soil written by Robert Tindall and published by North Atlantic Books. This book was released on 2017-07-18 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating description of how utilizing the biochar embedded in terra preta, the recently rediscovered sacred soil of the pre-Columbian peoples of the Amazon rainforest, can cut our dependency on petrochemicals, restore the health of our soils, remove carbon from our overheating atmosphere, and restore the planet to pre-industrial levels of atmospheric carbon by 2050. The authors show that the rediscovery of terra preta is an opportunity to move beyond the West’s tradition of plunder and genocide of the native civilizations of the Americas by offering an invitation to embrace the deeper mystery of the indigenous methods of inquiry and to participate in an animate cosmos that gave rise to such a powerful soil technology. Sacred Soil, in recognizing the need for biocultural regeneration, takes a multi-disciplinary approach to the phenomenon of biochar soils, utilizing mythopoeic, historical, anthropological, and scientific perspectives to embrace the deep past, the vexed present, and the prospectus for our future. Coming at this crucial juncture in human history, the potential resting in biochar is also an open doorway into the indigenous ways of knowing that enabled the pre-Columbian Amazonian high civilizations to support a population of millions while leaving their lands more fertile than when they arose.
Download or read book Soils and Geomorphology written by Peter W. Birkeland and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1999 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soils and Geomorphology, now in its third edition, remains popular among soil scientists, geomorphologists, geologists, geographers, and archaeologists. While retaining the useful "factors of soil formation format," it has been extensively revised, incorporating a considerable amount of new research and offering a greater number of topics and examples -- particularly in the chapters "Weathering and Soil Development with Time" and "Topography: Soil Relations with Time in Different Climatic Settings." Greater emphasis is placed on the role of dust in pedogenesis, and new data are included on tropical soil development, global soil-loess relations, neotectonics, and reduction processes. The text discusses field applications such as the use of soils in recognizing climate change, estimating the age of geological deposits, and dealing with environmental problems such as acid rain. New "how-to" appendices on soil descriptions and calculating the profile development index are also included. Soils and Geomorphology is an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in courses on pedology, soil science, Quaternary geology, archeology, and sedimentary petrology.
