In any complete investigation of terrestrial ecosystems, rocks and soils must be considered. Soils are essential resources, providing water and nutrients for vascular plants, and mitigating the flow of water from the land. In addition, soil diversity is critical for biotic diversity. While there are many references on the agricultural perspective o

Earl B. Alexander is a retired pedologist, if you can call writing books (first author of Serpentine Geoecology of Western North America) and professional papers retirement. He has a Ph.D. in soils and has worked for the Soil Conservation Service (now NRCS), the California (now Pacific Southwest) Forest and Range Experiment Station, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the University of Nevada, and three regions of the U.S. Forest Service. He has mapped and investigated soils in Ohio, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, Colombia, Nevada, California, Oregon, Alaska, and other states and provinces in western North America. He has developed interpretations for evaluating soil conditions and expected soil behaviours and made and reviewed recommendations for land management. More than 75 of his papers have been published in professional journals.

Soils, Landscapes and Ecosystems. Soil Parent Material, Weathering, and Primary Particles. Soil Architecture-Structural Units and Horizons. Heat and Soil Temperature. Soil Water, Air, and Climate. Soil Classification-Kinds of Soils. Soils in Landscapes. Primary Production and Plant Nutrition. Soil Organisms: Life in Soils. Soil Organic Matter. Soils and Global Processes. Land Management and Soil Quality. Glossary. References. Appendices.