Soil~Plant Relationships An Ecological Approach
Soil-plant relationships once had a limited meaning. To the student of agriculture it meant creating optimum conditions for plant growth. To the ecologist it meant explaining some plant community distribu tion patterns by correlation with soil type or co
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DAVID W. JEFFREY
CROOM HELM London & Sydney TIMBER PRESS Portland, Oregon
© 1987 David W. Jeffrey Croom Helm Ltd, Provident House, Burrell Row, Beckenham, Kent BR3 lAT Croom Helm Australia, 44-50 Waterloo Road, North Ryde, 2113, New South Wales British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Jeffrey, David W. Soil-plant relationships: an ecological approach. 1. Botany - Ecology I. Title 581.5'26404 QK901
ISBN-13: 978-0-7099-1464-8
e-ISBN-13: 978-94-011-6076-6 Pbk
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-011-6076-6
First published in the USA 1987 by Timber Press, 9999 S.W. Wilshire, Portland, OR 97225,
USA All rights reserved ISBN-13: 978-0-7099-1464-8
Contents Preface
vii
Part I: A plant-centred biological complex
1
1 Plants, roots and ion absorption 2 Mineral composition of plant tissues and the
3
function of ions
3 Plants and water 4 Symbiotic and other associations for nutrient
18 50
capture
63 82 91
Part ll: Environmental complexes
95
5 Herbivores, decomposers and other soil organisms 6 Vegetation and fire
7 8 9 10
Soil formation Soil matrix and soil water Soil atmosphere and soil temperature Some examples of mineral nutrient supply 11 Measuring availability of nutrients and toxic ions 12 Experimental approaches to the study of soil variables Part ill: Interactions in the real world. Some case histories
13 14 15 16
The autecology of two contrasting species Restoration of derelict land Two aspects of forest mineral-nutrient economy Australian heathlands and other nutrient-poor terrestrial ecosystems 17 Three aspects of the Alaskan Arctic tundra complex 18 Saltrnarshes and the coastal zone
v
97 109 129136150 161
173 175 185 202 211 224 235
CONTENTS
19 Calcareous and serpentine soils and their vegetation
257 277 280
Further reading Bibliography Index
291
vi
Preface Soil-plant relationships once had a limited meaning. To the student of agriculture it meant creating optimum conditions for plant growth. To the ecologist it meant explaining some plant community distribution patterns by correlation with soil type or conditions. This dual view has been greatly expanded at an academic level by the discovery of the ecosystem as a practical working unit. A flood of concepts and information subsequently emerged from the International Biological Programme. At a totally different level of resolution, it is appreciated that certain soil-based ecological problems have a molecular basis, and must be addressed by physiological or biochemical approaches. From ecosystem to molecule we have powerful new tools to increase the flow of ecological data and process it for interpretation. Society is now experiencing a series of adverse global phenomena which demand an appreciation of soil-plant relationships. These include desertification leading to famine, soil degradation accompanying forest destruction, acidification of watersheds and the spasmodic dispersal of radionuclides and other pollutants. It is public policy, not merely to identify problems, but to seek strategies for minimising their ill effects. This book is
