This book imparts a meticulous understanding of soil physical properties which is highly essential. This book helps students, researcher and scientists for evolving better understanding of soil physical health. This manuscript is an excellent reference for environmental and agricultural professionals as well as a text book for undergraduate and post-graduate students in their research works. This book provides current knowledge on the measurement of soil physical parameters that will assist the researchers for field level research works.
Dr. R.K. Kaleeswari, working as a Professor (Soil Science) has 30 years of teaching and research experiences. She has completed her post-doctoral research programme in Australia to explore the possibilities of soil carbon sequestration in salt affected soils. Her field of specialization is soil fertility and nutrient management. She has operated 29 research projects on soil fertility. She is awarded with Endeavour Research Award awarded by Government of Australia, Best Researcher Award by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and FAI-IMPHOS Award for outstanding research work on phosphorus by the World Phosphate Institute (IMPHOS), Morocco. She has published 105 research papers and 10 books. She guided 10 PG and 7 Ph.D. scholars.
1 Soil Texture..............................................................................................1
2 Importance of Soil Texture.......................................................................5
3 Soil Structure............................................................................................9
4 Importance of Soil Structure..................................................................17
5 Management of Soil Structure...............................................................21
6 Soil Consistence.....................................................................................23
7 Soil Density............................................................................................27
8 Soil Porosity...........................................................................................31
9 Importance of Soil Porosity...................................................................35
10 Soil Management to Improve Soil Porosity...........................................39
11 Soil Colour.............................................................................................41
12 Significance of Soil Colour....................................................................45
13 Soil Temperature....................................................................................49
14 Soil Air...................................................................................................53
15 Importance of Soil Air............................................................................59
16 Soil Air Movement.................................................................................63
17 Soil Water...............................................................................................67
18 Classification of Soil Water....................................................................71
19 Soil Moisture Measurement...................................................................77
20 Energy Concept of Soil Water................................................................85
21 Soil Water Potential................................................................................89
22 Instruments for Soil Water Measurement...............................................93
23 Forces of Soil Water Potential................................................................99
24 Soil Water Movement: Saturated Flow................................................101
25 Soil Water Movement: Unsaturated Flow............................................103
26 Process of Soil Water Movement.........................................................107
27 Thermodynamics of Soil Water Potential............................................109
28 Types of Soil Water Potential...............................................................115
29 Chemical Potential of Soil Water.........................................................119
30 Soil Water Retention Curves................................................................123
31 Infiltration Models................................................................................127
32 Fundamentals of Fluid Flow................................................................135
33 Darcy’s Law.........................................................................................139
34 Concepts of Infiltration Rate................................................................145
35 Concepts of Hydraulic Conductivity....................................................151
36 Infiltration Rate....................................................................................155
37 Movement of Salts in Soils..................................................................161
38 Diffusion of Salts..................................................................................165
39 Soil Water and Plant Nutrition.............................................................169
40 Soil Physical Constraints .....................................................................173
41 Soil Crust..............................................................................................175
42 Soil Conditioners..................................................................................179
43 Management of Soil Physical Properties.............................................183
44 Solar and Terrestrial Measurement......................................................187
45 Radiation in Soil-Plant System............................................................195
46 Soil Physical Properties Vs Soil Organic Matter Accumulation..........199
47 Physical Properties of Soil Series........................................................207
48 Soil Pore Structure and Geometry .......................................................213
49 Soil Micromorphology.........................................................................221
50 Soil Physical Properties and Climate Change......................................225
51 Soil Physical Quality and Crop Growth...............................................231
