The Soil: Plant System

The Soil-Plant System in Relation to Inorganic Nutrition focuses on the soil-plant system in relation to the inorganic nutrition of plants. More specifically, the book investigates the dynamics of ion uptake in relation to those physical and chemical processes that must be considered both in understanding any observation made on the soil-plant system and in predicting the results of any stress placed on the system. This volume is organized into two parts encompassing seven chapters and begins with an overview of the inorganic nutrition of plants grown in the soil-plant system. This book then discusses the uptake of nutrient ions from the soil into the plant system. The emphasis is on fundamental aspects of ion movement from the soil into and through the soil solution, then into the plant root, and finally into the shoot. The next chapters consider the more practical aspects of the supply of nutrients to plants grown in the soil-plant system and how it can best be supplemented. This book examines the use of isotopes with respect to solid-phase-soil-solution relationships; movement of ions to the roots, into the roots (active or passive), and translocation to the shoot; the mobility of nutrients; laboratory, greenhouse, and field evaluation of soil nutrient supply; and when, where, and what kind of fertilizer to apply. This book will be of interest to botanists, biologists, students, and research workers engaged in the physical and biological sciences.