This is the first comprehensive book on Argentinian pedology. It discusses the main soil types of Argentina, their geographical distribution, classification, functions, agricultural use, ecological aspects, and the threats to which they have been subjected during centuries of intensive and extensive management. The description of the soils is accompanied by a complete set of data, pictures and maps, including benchmark profiles and an overview of the country's agricultural production. It also deals with future scenarios of the relationships between soil science and other disciplines and the main challenges that soil science will face in the future. Further, the book explores aspects of the main soil forming factors, such as climate, vegetation, geology and geomorphology, making use of new, unpublished data and elaborations, and presents a history of pedological research in Argentina.

This volume deals with land degradation, which is occurring in almost all terrestrial biomes and agro-ecologies, in both low and high income countries and is stretching to about 30% of the total global land area. About three billion people reside in these degraded lands. However, the impact of land degradation is especially severe on livelihoods of the poor who heavily depend on natural resources. The annual global cost of land degradation due to land use and cover change (LUCC) and lower cropland and rangeland productivity is estimated to be about 300 billion USD. Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) accounts for the largest share (22%) of the total global cost of land degradation. Only about 38% of the cost of land degradation due to LUCC - which accounts for 78% of the US$300 billion loss – is borne by land users and the remaining share (62%) is borne by consumers of ecosystem services off the farm. The results in this volume indicate that reversing land degradation trends makes both economic sense, and has multiple social and environmental benefits. On average, one US dollar investment into restoration of degraded land returns five US dollars. The findings of the country case studies call for increased investments into the rehabilitation and restoration of degraded lands, including through such institutional and policy measures as strengthening community participation for sustainable land management, enhancing government effectiveness and rule of law, improving access to markets and rural services, and securing land tenure. The assessment in this volume has been conducted at a time when there is an elevated interest in private land investments and when global efforts to achieve sustainable development objectives have intensified. In this regard, the results of this volume can contribute significantly to the ongoing policy debate and efforts to design strategies for achieving sustainable development goals and related efforts to address land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

This book provides the first comprehensive overview of saline and alkaline soils in Latin America, known for having one of the most extensive surface of salt-affected soils in the world. It is organized along two main axes: soils and vegetation. The book discusses the occurrence of such soils in the region, focusing mainly in management strategies for their sustainable use, and it presents accounts of natural vegetation and crops in the various environments of the region. Social impacts of such conditions and ongoing projects to overcome them are considered. Likewise, the book highlights physiological mechanisms that are responsible for the negative effects these soils exert on crops and forest resources and determine vegetation distribution in them. Plant breeding challenges and new perspectives for such environments are discussed. Technologies such as irrigation and drainage are included. The readership includes soil and plant scientists, as well as policy makers.

This book is a guide to the native trees and approximately 95% of the introduced arboreal species of Argentine and Chilean Patagonia. Keys based on vegetative characters and richly illustrated descriptions of more than 170 species form the core of the manual.

In this book—part wine primer, part cultural exploration, part introduction to the Argentine lifestyle—discover where to eat, what to see, and how to travel like a local with Laura Catena, the Argentina-born, United States-educated, globetrotting wine star. The world's fifth largest producer of wine, Argentina is home to malbec, the country's best-known indigenous grape. More than 400,000 Americans and 600,000 Europeans visit Argentina every year to enjoy the mighty malbec, taste unparalleled food, trek the wide-open country, and tango all night long in Buenos Aires. Vino Argentino provides insider access to beautiful Argentina.

This book provides the reader with a comprehensive overview of the soils of Spain gathered by a variety of Spanish experts in the field. It presents soils in this country as particularly conditioned by the naturally diverse and drastic distribution of the Spanish landscape, characterized by mountainous ranges in the North, and arid areas in the South and the East. The first chapter sets the agricultural scenario in Spain as influenced by the Arabic culture and American agricultural products; the second chapter provides a classification and distribution of Spanish soils; the third chapter approaches the topic of soils in the characteristically humid Northern Iberia area as prone to diversity and soil evolution; the fourth focuses on the soils of the South and East of Spain as affected by lack of rainfall and abundance in calcic soil horizons; the fifth chapter deals with Mediterranean soils, having as a particular characteristic the dominance of red colors; and the last chapter discusses the challenges and future issues of Spanish soils.