Annals of Botany 2005 96(1):165; doi:10.1093/aob/mci162
© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Annals of Botany Company. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
The Biogeochemistry of Submerged Soils.
Kirk, G. 2004.
Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. £100 (hardcover). 304 pp.
CURTIS J. RICHARDSON
One can learn a lot about the
geochemistry of submerged soils in this book by Kirk. However,
it is not, as the title implies, focused on the biogeochemistry
of all submerged soils. In Chapter 1 Kirk gives a very brief
overview of the global extent of submerged soils and wetlands.
This introduction suggests the book will fully treat all submerged
soils and one hopes that natural wetlands will be a large part
of the story. Unfortunately, most of the best biogeochemistry
examples in this volume are focused on mineral soils in rice
research. In fact 40 % of the tables and nearly 50 % of the
figures are focused on rice. The work of most wetland soils
scientists is ignored except for a few out-of-date studies that
mention bogs, riparian and tidal wetlands in Chapter 7. Other
curious statements about wetlands are made throughout the book.
For example, in Chapter 1, p. 9, the author states, ‘phosphorus
retention is therefore a highly valuable attribute of wetlands
receiving diffuse pollution’. Since most natural and constructed
wetlands are poor sinks for phosphorus (<50 % retention and
often as low as 20 %) it is difficult to see how the author
came to this conclusion. However, if the reader is interested
in a book that gives detailed insights into the biogeochemistry
of rice soils, then this book will be extremely useful. I found
a lot of new information and experimental approaches that could
be used in the study of submerged soils and a lot of studies
that dealt in detail with gas fluxes and plant responses to
nutrient additions that could be easily transferred to the study
of all submerged systems. The author presents in mathematical
detail transport processes like mass flow and diffusion in submerged
soil (Chapter 2), interchange of solutes between solid, liquid
and gas phases (Chapter 3), and reduction and oxidation thermodynamics
and kinetics with an emphasis on the transformations of C, N,
S and P in reduced soils (Chapter 4). Additional chapters on
biological processes do a nice job of detailing methanogenesis,
nitrate and sulfate reduction, etc in submerged systems (Chapter
5), and root and rhizophere processes are well covered in Chapter
6. The book finishes with a chapter on toxins and pollutants
(Chapter 7) and a trace gas chapter (Chapter 8) that focuses
on global budgets for methane, nitrogen oxides, ammonia and
sulfur. Overall, this volume will make a nice reference addition
to those scientists interested in biogeochemical processes in
anaerobic environments, especially rice lands.
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