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Central to human life and civilization, soils are an integral part of the physical and cultural environment. Although we may take them for granted, the rise and fall of civilizations is closely linked with the use and abuse of soil and water resources. It is therefore important to evaluate soils for their quality and link them to appropriate uses and services. This book provides information on soil classification and shows how to key out taxa relevant to UAE soils. The latest soil inventory of United Arab Emirates reveals that a rather uniform looking desert landscape has, in fact, a diversity of subsurface features. These features confirm the soil diversity in terms of classification, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, fertility, suitability for different uses and vulnerability to land degradation. United Arab Emirates Keys to Soil Taxonomy presents information for keying out the soils of the United Arab Emirates into separate classes and provides a guide to associated laboratory methods. The classification used predominantly is extracted from the 11th edition of the USDA-NRCS Keys to Soil Taxonomy, and sections relevant to the soils found in the UAE are included here. Primarily, this key is designed to fit the soil system of the United Arab Emirates. Information not found in the USDA key has been added, including criteria and classes for: 1) differentiating anhydritic soils from gypsic soils, 2) identifying "lithic" subgroups for Aquisalids and Haplosalids, 3) identifying "salidic" subgroups within the great groups of Gypsids, Calcids, Psamments, and Orthents, and 4) incorporation of phases for soil taxa. A subsurface diagnostic horizon and mineralogy class (anhydritic), not reported earlier in the world soil literature and, recently found in the UAE, has also been added to the book. The book also offers a mechanism for updating the current soil surveys, and will facilitate the correlation of soils from new surveys in the UAE. Additionally, it will helpthe international soil science community to converse about UAE soils, and facilitate comparison to soils of other regions. These linkages allow countries with similar mapping and classification procedures and similar soils to transfer agriculture technology without conducting long-term experiments under similar environmental conditions, especially for Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia).
Über den Autor / die Autorin
Shabbir A Shahid was awarded the prestigious Sir William Roberts award to pursue Ph.D. degree in Soil Science specialization in Soil Micromorphology of Salt-affected Soils at the University of Bangor, Wales, UK, completed in 1989. He has over 40 years' experience as Soil Scientist in Pakistan, UK, Australia, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait. Currently, he is Research Scientist, Desert Agriculture and Ecosystems Program, ELSRC-KISR. He was Technical Coordinator in multi-million national soil surveys of the State of Kuwait and Abu Dhabi Emirate and developed soil survey action plan for the Northern Emirates of UAE and the Republic of Mauritania. He, with his co-associates, discovered anhydrite soil which is formally added in the twelfth edition of US Keys to Soil Taxonomy as a diagnostic horizon, mineralogy class and subgroups in the Salids suborder of the order Aridisols. He is also Principal Author of United Arab Emirates Keys to Soil Taxonomy published by Springer. In addition, heis Creator and Co-Founder of Emirates Soil Museum launched in 2016 at the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He is Prolific Author of over 200 scientific papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, book chapters, conference proceedings, and newsletters. As Editor/Co-editor/Principal Author, he published 7 books by professional publisher Springer. At the time of publication, his RG score was 26.45, h-index 20 with 1435 citations, and over 115,035 reads globally. His RG score 26.45 is higher than 82.5% of all Research Gate members' scores globally. He is recipient of Dr. David A Jenkins Award due to his pioneer research and findings of thenardite (Na2SO4) dominance in the salt-affected soils of Punjab, Pakistan in contrast to older hypothesis of halite (NaCl) dominance. He has proved himself as a first practicing Soil Micromorphologist and established the very first soil micromorphology laboratory at the University of Agriculture Faisalabad Pakistan.
Dr. Samira A. S. Omar was appointed by the Kuwait Council of Ministers as the Director General of KISR from 2016-2021. She was responsible for the Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) development and promotion in the country. Currently, Dr. Omar is Principal Research Scientist conducting full time Research & Development (R&D) at KISR. She has led and contributed to 27 research projects to conserve biodiversity, restore ecosystems, and promote sustainable agricultural development in Kuwait. Dr. Samira also led the Soil Survey for the State of Kuwait Project from 1995-1999 and the Kuwait Environmental Remediation Program (KERP) for the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) from 2011-2014. Dr. Omar is affiliated with many international organizations including the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Organization for Women in Science in Developing Countries (OWSD) and the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). Dr. Omar is aResearch Fellow at The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and a has received 21 awards for her scientific achievements. Recently she received the Decoration of OSI (Order of the Star of Italy) at the very high rank of Grand Officer for her collaboration with the Government of Italy in Research & Development (R&D) in 2021. She was also honored the Theodore M. Sperry Award 2019 by SER in September 2019. Dr. Omar holds a PhD degree in wild land resource science from the University of California, Berkeley. She is prolific author of 33 refereed journal papers, 83 conference proceedings and 34 books and chapters. She has been member of Editor Boards of IUCN since 2016.
Zusammenfassung
Central to human life and civilization, soils are an integral part of the physical and cultural environment. Although we may take them for granted, the rise and fall of civilizations is closely linked with the use and abuse of soil and water resources. It is therefore important to evaluate soils for their quality and link them to appropriate uses and services. This book provides information on soil classification and shows how to key out taxa relevant to UAE soils. The latest soil inventory of United Arab Emirates reveals that a rather uniform looking desert landscape has, in fact, a diversity of subsurface features. These features confirm the soil diversity in terms of classification, chemistry, physics, mineralogy, fertility, suitability for different uses and vulnerability to land degradation. United Arab Emirates Keys to Soil Taxonomy presents information for keying out the soils of the United Arab Emirates into separate classes and provides a guide to associated laboratory methods. The classification used predominantly is extracted from the 11th edition of the USDA-NRCS Keys to Soil Taxonomy, and sections relevant to the soils found in the UAE are included here. Primarily, this key is designed to fit the soil system of the United Arab Emirates. Information not found in the USDA key has been added, including criteria and classes for: 1) differentiating anhydritic soils from gypsic soils, 2) identifying “lithic” subgroups for Aquisalids and Haplosalids, 3) identifying “salidic” subgroups within the great groups of Gypsids, Calcids, Psamments, and Orthents, and 4) incorporation of phases for soil taxa. A subsurface diagnostic horizon and mineralogy class (anhydritic), not reported earlier in the world soil literature and, recently found in the UAE, has also been added to the book. The book also offers a mechanism for updating the current soil surveys, and will facilitate the correlation of soils from new surveys in the UAE. Additionally, it will helpthe international soil science community to converse about UAE soils, and facilitate comparison to soils of other regions. These linkages allow countries with similar mapping and classification procedures and similar soils to transfer agriculture technology without conducting long-term experiments under similar environmental conditions, especially for Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Saudi Arabia).
