Soil Physics Companion

An authoritative reference on soil physics, Soil Physics Companion is lavishly illustrated with graphs, charts, line drawings, and equations. The book provides a valuable source of material and reference for most contemporary topics of soil physics and the vadose zone - arguably the most comprehensive volume available. In addition to being a reliable reference, it is valuable as an advanced text from which topics of interest can be selected by the teacher and student. Topics include: Static and dynamic aspects of soils Transport processes and soil water measurements Movement of soil water in the context of overall water balance and its key role in the hydrologic cycle Energy balance and thermal regime Soil-plant-atmospheric interface Solute transport and soil-gas movement Spatial variability Building on the work begun in the bestselling Handbook of Soil Science, this reference takes soil physics one step further. Convenient and easy-to-use, it provides in-depth information at your fingertips. When you need easily accessible, readily available facts and theories, you need the Soil Physics Companion.

This book is not, in any case, in total defiance of the Wise Old Man's admonition, for it is not an entirely new book. Rather, it is an outgrowth of a previous treatise, written a decade ago, entitled "Soil and Water: Physical Principles and Processes." Though that book was well enough received at the time, the passage of the years has inevitably made it necessary to either revise and update the same book, or to supplant it with a fresh approach in the form of a new book which might incorporate still-pertient aspects of its predecessor without necessarily being limited to the older book's format or point of view.

Now in its third edition, this textbook gives a comprehensive account of soil physics with emphasis on field applications for students and research workers engaged in water resources studies, soil sciences, and plant sciences. The authors have added chapters on soil erosion, conservation, and the role of soil in affecting water quality to this new edition. The book gives an account of how water influences the structure and strength of soil; how plants absorb water from soils; how water from rain and irrigation enters the soil and flows through it to contribute to stream flow and flow in artificial drains; how soluble salts and chemical pollutants are transported; how soils are eroded by water and wind; and how the evaporation rate from the land surface is influenced by soil water supply, the nature of the plant cover and the evaporative power of the atmosphere. This book will be useful to students and research workers in environmental sciences, hydrology, agriculture, soil science, and civil engineering.

This book is a unified, condensed, and simplified version of the recently issued twin volumes, Fundamentals of Soil Physics and Applications of Soil Physics. Nonessential topics and complexities have been deleted, and little prior knowledge of the subject is assumed. An effort has been made to provide an elementary, readable, and self-sustaining description of the soil's physical properties and of the manner in which these properties govern the processes taking place in the field. Consideration is given to the ways in which the soil's processes can be influenced, for better or for worse, by man. Sample problems are provided in an attempt to illustrate how the abstract principles embodied in mathematical equations can be applied in practice. The author hope that the present version will be more accessible to students than its precursors and that it might serve to arouse their interest in the vital science of soil physics.

Designed for undergraduate and graduate students, this book covers important soil physical properties, critical physical processes involving energy and mass transport, movement and retention of water and solutes through soil profile, soil temperature regimes and aeration, and plant-water relations. It includes new concepts and numerical examples fo

An abridged, student-oriented edition of Hillel's earlier published Environmental Soil Physics, Introduction to Environmental Soil Physics is a more succinct elucidation of the physical principles and processes governing the behavior of soil and the vital role it plays in both natural and managed ecosystems. The textbook is self-contained and self-explanatory, with numerous illustrations and sample problems. Based on sound fundamental theory, the textbook leads to a practical consideration of soil as a living system in nature and illustrates the influences of human activity upon soil structure and function. Students, as well as other readers, will better understand the importance of soils and the pivotal possition they occupy with respect to careful and knowledgeable conservation. Written in an engaging and clear style, posing and resolving issues relevant to the terrestrial environment Explores the gamut of the interactions among the phases in the soil and the dynamic interconnection of the soil with the subterranean and atmospheric domains Reveals the salient ideas, approaches, and methods of environmental soil physics Includes numerous illustrative exercises, which are explicitly solved Designed to serve for classroom and laboratory instruction, for self-study, and for reference Oriented toward practical problems in ecology, field-scale hydrology, agronomy, and civil engineering Differs from earlier texts in its wider scope and holistic environmental conception