Understanding Soils of Mountainous Landscapes by Bhadouria, Rahul; Singh, Shipra; Tripathi, Sachchidanand; Singh, Pardeep;

Long description:

Understanding Soils of Mountainous Landscapes: Sustainable Use of Soil Ecosystem Services and Management focuses on the patterns and processes of mountainous soils, including threats due to the fragile nature of mountain ecosystems, and the conservation and management of soil ecosystem services and restoration processes. The book covers a balanced approach to land and resource management, ensuring that environmentally and socio-culturally sound interventions are developed and applied in the complex geophysical, ecological, and social landscapes of the world's mountain systems. The book provides holistic understanding of mountain soils to help environmental and soil scientists gain insight and develop new problem-solving approaches.

With obvious up- and downstream linkages (e.g., a large proportion of urban canters globally depend on water that originates in the mountains) as well as globalization (e.g., continental-scale impacts of air pollution and climate change on glaciers), the long-range success of conservation measures in mountain regions requires that the following discrete but interconnected interventions be pursued concurrently: (1) the protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services, (2) empowerment of mountain communities (including family farming), and (3) elaboration of more thoughtful, context-specific policy environments for sustainable mountain development.

Table of Contents:

1. Overview of mountainous soil
2. Soil-pedological and edaphological concepts
3. Soil formation factors and processes: Components of soil
4. Soil mediated distribution pattern
5. Soil processes under changing climatic scenario
6. Soil nutrient dynamics and vegetation pattern
7. Soil ecosystem services
8. Soil processes and agricultural practices
9. Soil and indigenous practices
10. Biochar-mediated microbial community dynamics
11. Thermal properties of soil (soil temperature, soil aeration, gaseous exchange, the influence of soil temperature and air)
12. Radioecology in mountainous soil
13. Soil biological processes (Carbon cycle, biomass, soil organisms and micro-organisms)
14. Soil water-plant interaction and relations in various ecosystem
15. Plant Functional Traits and regeneration
16. Global climate change, carbon flux and soil quality
17. Soil and anthropogenic activities in mountain ecosystem
18. Threats to mountainous soil
19. Conservation and management of mountainous soil (remediationï¿1⁄2and management strategies)