The three favourite soil science books of:
Sergey Goryachkin (Russia)
Soil science is the large branch of knowledge attracting the specialist with very different mentalities and preferences. Soil biologists can be closer to the biology and soil chemist can be biased towards chemistry. That is why the favorite book of a soil scientist depends on the branch of our science he works in. I am a soil geographer and specialist in soils of cold climates. It determines my preference in scientific reading.
My first choice is the book of V.M.Fridland (Fridland V.M. 1976. Pattern of the soil cover. Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem, 291 p.) and its continuation and adaptation to English-speaking scientific community (Hole F.D., Campbell J.B. 1985. Soil landscape analysis. Rowman & Allanheld Publishers, 216 p.). These two books are not very popular now, in the era of pedometrics, however, they have been revolutionary in 1970s as the system approach to investigate soil covers not just as a collection of soil profiles or even soil catenas but as a three-dimensional systems with different components and linkages. They allowed to elaborate new soil maps where were shown 1) soils as soil cover components, 2) soil percentage in every map polygon, 3) linkages between soils and 4) the genetic morphology of a pattern. Even now the most of soil maps and GIS databases has only two characteristics of four ones suggested by the authors of these books.
My second choice is the Encyclopaedia of polar soils the book of the real giant in cold soils study J.C.F.Tedrow (Tedrow J.C.F. Soils of the polar landscapes. Rutgers Univ. press. 1977. 664 pp.). This book embraces Polar Regions of both hemispheres Arctic and Antarctic. J.C.F.Tedrow included all the knowledge on polar soils the science had at the end of 1970s. He cited many German, French, Russian and Scandinavian books and papers. He explained all the sides and specificities of pedogenesis in high latitudes cryogenic churning, the formation of patterned ground and other features caused by permafrost. There have been published a lot of new data, papers and books on polar soilscapes since that time but the most comprehensive monograph is still the one of J.C.F.Tedrow.
My third choice is two volumes of M.A.Glazovskaya s Soils of the World (Glazovskaya M.A. 1983. Soils of the world: Vol. 1. Soil families and soil types. 214p. Glazovskaya M.A. 1984. Soils of the world: Vol. 2. Soil Geography 411 p. New Delhi, Amerind.). They were published in Russian in 1972, before Soil Taxonomy and FAO-UNESCO Soil Map. So, this book was one of the first overlooks of the global pedosphere. The first volume concerns different soils of the world. The approach of their systematization was absolutely novel at that time. It combines both substantial and genetic approaches basing on such characteristics as pH, Eh, CEC and its saturation as well as genetic horizons. The second volume is the systematic information on soil distribution on different continents and some general approaches to soil geography. They are a combination of bioclimatic zonality and geogenic regionalization. This monograph is still one of the best analyses of the world s soils and pedosphere.
Fridland V.M. 1976. Pattern of the soil cover. Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem, 291 p.
Hole F.D., Campbell J.B. 1985. Soil landscape analysis. Rowman & Allanheld Publishers, 216 p.
Tedrow J.C.F. Soils of the polar landscapes. Rutgers Univ. press. 1977. 664 pp.
Glazovskaya M.A. 1983. Soils of the world: Vol. 1. Soil families and soil types. New Delhi, Amerind. 214p.
Glazovskaya M.A. 1984. Soils of the world: Vol. 2. Soil Geography. New Delhi, Amerind,411 p.