Principles of Soil and Plant Water Relations combines biology and physics to show how water moves through the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. This text explores the instrumentation and the methods used to measure the status of water in soil and plants. Principles are clearly presented with the aid of diagrams, anatomical figures, and images of instrumentation. The methods on instrumentation can be used by researchers, consultants, and the military to monitor soil degradation, including measurements of soil compaction, repellency, oxygen diffusion rate, and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. Intended for graduate students in plant and soil science programs, this book also serves as a useful reference for agronomists, plant ecologists, and agricultural engineers.

Author Biography

M. B. Kirkham is a Professor in the Department of Agronomy at Kansas State University. Her research involves two areas: soil-plant-water relations and uptake of heavy metals by crops grown on polluted soil (called "phytoremediation"). Dr. Kirkham is currently collaborating with colleagues at the Kansas State University Northwest Research-Extension Center in Colby, Kansas to study yield and water relations of sorghum grown under the semi-arid conditions of far western Kansas. Dr. Kirkham serves on several editorial boards: Soil Science; Journal of Crop Improvement; International Agrophysics; Crop Science; Australian Journal of Soil Research; Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment; Agricultural Water Management; Pakistan Journal of Agricultural Research; Agricultural, Food and Analytical Bacteriology; and Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science. In addition, Dr. Kirkham has received the CSSA Crop Science Research Award and the 2010-11 Iman Outstanding Faculty Award for Research.