Preface for the First English Edition

Soils provide us with food, feed, fiber, and fuel. Furthermore, they support many different forms of life on Earth. This book aims to promote the understanding of soils, their development, their functions and their distribution, and enable closer contact with this important natural resource. For most of the chapters, the first English edition of this soil science textbook represents a translation of the German 16th edition published in 2010, originating from the first edition in German in 1937. In keeping with the organization and contents that made the German editions bestsellers, the textbook covers all major aspects of soil science. However, the chapters on soil development and classification and soil geography were completely revised and adapted to international classification systems. A number of figures have also been redrawn and revised for the first English edition. This textbook aims to provide an up-to-date account of the current state of knowledge in soil science. This textbook is designed as a basic textbook for use in soil science courses and other courses that explore current developments in this field and is an invaluable resource for students in agriculture, forestry, ecology, and environmental sciences. It will also be very useful as a basic work that provides scientists and professionals with a profound introduction to specific topics as well as the most relevant literature. It will guide students through soil physical, chemical, and biological processes and introduce them to soil geography, soil classification, and threats to soil functions. This book represents a joint effort by German authors who have diverse complementary backgrounds in soil science and who developed this book over the past decades. The group of authors has worked closely together, creating a textbook that has continuity in depth and style and that is state of the art at the time of publishing. The authors wish to thank the publisher for their excellent cooperation. We hope that the present and future generations will use the knowledge in this book for a better understanding of soils. We welcome any comments from all those who use this text. The authors acknowledge the eminent help by Jacinda Richman, Annett Büttner, and the publisher along the way to realizing this edition.