Hydropedology is a microcosm for what is happening in Soil Science. Once a staid discipline found in schools of agriculture devoted to increasing crop yield, soil science is transforming itself into an interdisciplinary mulch with great significance not only for food production but also climate change, ecology, preservation of natural resources, forestry, and carbon sequestration. Hydropedology brings together pedology (soil characteristics) with hydrology (movement of water) to understand and achieve the goals now associated with modern soil science.

• The first book of its...