Soil and Drought : Basic Processes

Drought, a serious global issue, is being aggravated by climate change. Both pedological and agronomic droughts are major risk factors with adverse effects on agronomic productivity, food and nutritional security, and human wellbeing. This volume in the Advances in Soil Sciences series provides research information regarding case studies from diverse agro-ecoregions around the world and lists examples of effective management of drought at farm, state, national, regional, and global scales.

Features:

Considers processes, factors, and causes of pedological/agronomic droughts.

Discusses effects of global warming on soil drought and describes management options to enhance drought resilience of agricultural soils.

Focuses on specific case studies along with review of a variety of tools and techniques designed to mitigate drought and reduce its impact on agronomic productivity.

Includes information on soil health and its effects on drought.

In addition to highlighting the scientific accomplishments of Dr. Bobby A. Stewart, this book is a major contribution to the global issue of drought management and its dynamics in relation to soil properties under changing climate. It is reference material for researchers, students, practitioners, and policymakers in soil science, agronomy, ecology and management of natural resources with specific focus on adaptation and mitigation of climate change, restoration of soil health, strengthening of biodiversity and promoting the strategy for advancing the “Sustainable Development Goals” or Agenda 2030 of the United Nations.

Rattan Lal, Ph.D., is Distinguished University Professor and Director of the CFAES Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration, The Ohio State University, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Iceland and IARI, New Delhi. He was President of the WASWAC (1987-1990), ISTRO (1988-1991), SSSA (2006-2008), and the IUSS (2017-2018). He researches soil C sequestration, conservation agriculture, soil health, soil erosion and C dynamics, soil structure, eco-intensification, soil restoration, and soils of the tropics. He has authored 2885 journal articles, authored/edited more than 100 books, mentored 390 researchers, has h-index of 172, and total citations of 129,861. In a Stanford study (Ioannidis et al. 2019, 2020), he is ranked #111 globally among world’s top 2% of scientists and #1 among scientists in Agronomy & Agriculture. Reuter Thompson ranked him #391 among the top 1000 climatologists. He holds IICA’s Chair in Soil Science and Goodwill Ambassador in Sustainable Development. He is a member of the 2021 U.N. Food System Summit Science Committee, Action Track 3 and Coalition 4 Soil Health. He received the 2018 GCHERA World Agriculture Prize, 2018 Glinka World Soil Prize, 2019 Japan Prize, 2019 IFFCO Award, 2020 Arrell Global Food Innovation Award, the 2020 World Food Prize, and the 2021 Padma Shri Award, India.