Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Guide
Recommended resources for Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources

Web Links: Soil Science

General Resources

University of Sydney Library Catalogue
Some recommended subject headings on the University of Sydney Library Catalogue are:

Encyclopedia of soils in the environment
This electronic encyclopaedia of soil science contains around 300 concise articles. "Each of the articles separately, and all of them in sequence and combination, serve to summarize and encapsulate our present knowledge of the world's variegated soils, their natural functions, and their importance to humans." Site licence restricts use to staff and students of the University of Sydney.

Encyclopedia of Soil Science
This electronic encyclopaedia of soil science contains around 400 entries. "Provides complete information on chemistry, analysis, and evaluation of soils and geography and focuses on agriculture development in the third world, particularly through research on sustainable management of natural resources, soil productivity and environmental quality." Site licence restricts use to staff and students of the University of Sydney.

Internet Glossary of Soil Science Terms
The Soil Science Society of America maintains the Internet Glossary of Soil Science Terms. Visitors will find a searchable and browseable dictionary of hundreds of soil terms. Other resources include tables, which include terms for describing consistence of block-like specimens, pore size classification, and soil water terminology, as well as appendixes on soil taxonomy. A new feature of the site is a downloadable dictionary file of soil science terms with instructions for loading it to your computer.

Pedosphere.com
This online soil science magazine covers all the basic aspects of soil science.

Australian Resources

Australian soil classification
This CSIRO site is the online version of Australian soil classification by R.F. Isbell, the 4th book in the Australian Soil and Land Survey Handbook series by J.M. Aldrick et al. The site contains a glossary of soil terms and a list of references. The main part of the site is a key to soil orders, which are subdivided into concepts, definitions, suborders and lower categories.

Australian Natural Resources Atlas
The National Land and Water Resources Audit publish this site. The soil section provides an overview of soils in Australia and information on soil erosion, sediment transport, acidification and monitoring soil change. It also includes the Australian Soil Resources Information System (ASRIS). ASRIS is a national database of soil information, suitable for use at national to large regional scale, comprising:

Australian Natural Resources Data Library
"The Australian Natural Resources Data Library has been prepared to provide ready access to information to support natural resource management". The search page allows you to search by keyword and define a region of interest.

New South Wales Natural Resource Atlas
Published by the New South Wales Government, this atlas provides access "to maps and data for environmental management, planning, research and education". Information includes detailed satellite imagery, species identification keys and maps, daily water quality and vegetation maps.

Soils in New South Wales
Published by the Department of Natural Resources, this site provides a range of information on soils in New South Wales. "NSW soil data" links to SALIS (NSW Soil and Land Information System). SALIS " is a database that contains descriptions of soils, landscapes and other geographic features from across NSW."

Soilhealth.com
Soilhealth.com is published by the Soil Biology Research Group, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences in the School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, University of Western Australia. The site aims to answer common questions regarding soil biological processes, organic matter, soil organisms, and the soil management practices that affect these. Full text access to The Australian Soil Club Newsletter is also available.

International Resources

World Reference Base for Soil Resources
The World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is an initiative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to enable international agreement on the major soil groupings. Scientists can communicate through WRB to identify, characterise and name major types of soil. Thirty (30) reference soil groups have been identified to constitute the World Reference Base for Soil Resources. The website gives the key to these soil groups and information on diagnostic horizons, properties and material.

A Compendium of on-line soil survey information
This site is compiled by David G. Rossiter Soil Science Division of the International Institute for Aerospace Survey & Earth Sciences (ITC) in the Netherlands. The site includes information on soil survey institutes and activities, soil classification methods, techniques, applications and models, land evaluation, digital soil geographic databases and a picture gallery. Access is provided to soil journals with abstracts and some full-text articles being available as well as links to related websites.

Soils
Published by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Soils web site aims to help people understand soil. Online Soil Survey Manuscripts "furnish soil maps and interpretations needed in giving technical assistance to farmers and ranchers; in guiding other decisions about soil selection, use, and management; and in planning research." The site provides free access to online soil surveys from 26 states in the US and the Caribbean area.The surveys are available as PDF documents.

Official soil series descriptions
Published by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) - Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Soil Survey Division, the Official Soil Series Descriptions (OSD) is a national collection of more than 18,000 detailed soil series descriptions, covering the United States. The descriptions, available in a text format, serve as a national standard. This database can be accessed by series name or by specified selection criteria - such as geographic areas of responsibility or use, series status, various dates, or the soil classification.

Soil resources mapping and classification
Published by the Land and Water Development Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FA0). The site provides access to:

International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC)
Published by ISRIC: a Foundation for documentation, training and research on soils of the world. ISRIC is the World Data Centre for Soils of the International Council of Sciences (ICSU). Some ISRIC publications can be freely downloaded.

Soil taxonomy
(.pdf document)
This full text, 870 page, document is the 2nd edition (1999) of Soil taxonomy : a basic system of soil classification for making and interpreting soil surveys written by soil survey staff at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service. The Library holds the first edition; the call number is 631.44 22.

Soil protection and remediation
Published by the Soil Science Department of Rothamsted Research, England. This page provides details of the research being carried out at Rothamsted into soil protection and remediation and a list of related links.

Biological soil crusts
"Biological soil crusts are the community of living organisms at the surface of desert soils. major components are cyanobacteria, green algae, microfungi, mosses and liverworts and lichens." The US Geological Survey provides this online guide to biological soil crusts. Crust 101 contains a detailed introduction to soil crust ecology, and the advanced feature offers an extensive technical reference. The Web site also includes a photo gallery, list of related references, and a short list of links.

Canadian soil information system (CanSIS)
CanSIS is responsible for the development of the National Soils DataBase (NSDB) for Canada. The NSDB contains soil, landscape and climate data in computer readable files for the whole of Canada, and functions as "the national archive for land resources information that was collected by federal and provincial field surveys, or created by land data analysis projects." The following publications are freely available from the web site:

George E. Brown, Jr. Salinity Laboratory
Formerly know as the US Salinity Laboratory (USSL), the aim of the laboratory is to "develop, through research, new knowledge, and technology, the solution of problems of crop production on salt-affected lands, to promote the sustainability of irrigated agriculture, and to prevent degradation of surface- and ground-water resources by salts, toxic-elements, pesticides, and pathogens." The web site provides details of the current research programs and various models are freely available to download using FTP. The Salt tolerance bibliography database provides references to journal articles on salt tolerance in plants.

Environmental physics
Homepage of Environmental Physics, Department of Soil Sciences, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. The site provides access to information about the department and its research along with access to:

Soil water characteristics: hydraulic properties calculator
This graphic computer program was developed Dr. Keith E. Saxton, US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service in cooperation with Department of Biological Systems Engineering, Washington State University. The "program estimates soil water tension, conductivity and water holding capability based on the soil texture, organic matter, gravel content, and salinity."

Global soil moisture data bank
Maintained by Alan Robock, Department of Environmental Sciences, Rutgers University, USA. Data sets for China, India, Mongolia, Former Soviet Union, Iowa and Illinois are available for downloading. There are also links to other soil moisture data sets.

CoupModel
Published by the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. The CoupModel is a coupled heat and mass transfer model for soil-plant-atmosphere system - it is free to download from this site.

Minerals under the microscope
Published by Charlotte Gladstone, University of Bristol, England. This web site aims to assist students in using the polarising (or petrological microscope) and to help them identify minerals under the microscope.

Optical microscopy primer: physics of light and color
This web site is published by the Optical Microscopy Division of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, a joint venture of the Florida State University, the University of Florida, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory. It describes the functions of a light microscope and the optical properties of soil minerals that can be discerned using a light microscope. The particular combinations of optical properties are diagnostic of different minerals and allow identification of different mineral grains.

Soil Physics Resources

Introductory soil physics
This is the homepage for the course 'Introductory soil physics' taught at the University of California, Davis. The course covers: "description of soil physical properties; principals of water, gas, heat, and solute movement in soil with selected examples related to soil and water management and influence of soil physical properties on transfer processes." The site provides access to detailed course notes.

Henry Darcy and his law
This site is published by Glenn Brown, Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering, Oklahoma University. "Henry Darcy (1803 to 1858) is credited with the invention of the modern style Pitot tube, was the first researcher to suspect the existence of the boundary layer in fluid flow, contributed in the development of the Darcy-Weisbach equation for pipe flow resistance, made major contributions to open channel flow research and of course developed Darcy's Law for flow in porous media. His Law is a foundation stone for several fields of study including ground-water hydrology, soil physics, and petroleum engineering." Information is provided about Henry Darcy himself, groundwater and Darcy's law and pipe flow and the pitot tube.

Organisations

CSIRO Division of land and water (including soil)
Developed by the CSIRO, this site is dedicated to creating the knowledge, strategies and tools to manage land and water in Australia and internationally. It lists the main research centres of the Division, current issues and research programs, services and facilities offered and publications. Some publications are available as full-text online documents available through the Adobe Acrobat Reader. An image gallery with a search facility and links to related Australian and overseas websites are also provided.

Soil Science Society of America
This website provides information about soil in relation to crop production, environmental quality, ecosystem sustainability, bioremediation, waste management and recycling, and wise land use. It also provides professional services for over 5,700 members of the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) worldwide. There are links to relevant government agencies and organisations, journals and publications.

British Society of Soil Science
Provide links to:

International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS)
IUSS "is the global union of soil scientists." The site provides full text access to the Bulletin of the International Union of Soil Sciences.