The Nature and Properties of Soils is designed to engage today’s students with the latest in the world of soils. This hallmark text introduces students to the exciting world of soils through clear writing, strong pedagogy, and an ecological approach that effectively explains the fundamentals of soil science. Worked calculations, vignettes, and current real-world applications prepare readers to understand concepts, solve problems, and think critically. Written for both majors and non-majors, this text highlights the many interactions between the soil and other components of forest, range, agricultural, wetland and constructed ecosystems. \nFeatures: \n•A comprehensive approach to soils with a focus on six major ecological roles of soil including growth of plants, climate change, recycling function, biodiversity, water, and soil properties and behavior. \n•Updated with the latest advances, concepts, and applications including hundreds of key references. \n•New coverage of cutting-edge soil science. Examples include coverage of the pedosphere concept, new insights into humus and soil carbon accumulation, subaqueous soils, soil effects on human health, principles and practice of organic farming, urban and human engineered soils, new understandings of the nitrogen cycle, water-saving irrigation techniques, hydraulic redistribution, soil food-web ecology, disease suppressive soils, soil microbial genomics, soil interactions with global climate change, digital soil maps, and many others \n•New applications boxes and case study vignettes. A total of 10 new application and case study boxes bring important soils topics to life.