<p>Foreword xiii</p> <p><b>Chapter 1. Soils as a Key Component of the Critical Zone 1<br /></b><i>Jacques BERTHELIN, Guilhem BOURRIÉ, Michel-Claude GIRARD, Guillaume DHÉRISSARD and Christian VALENTIN</i></p> <p>1.1. What are soils? 1</p> <p>1.2. The Earth, land, soils, soil cover and the Critical Zone 2</p> <p>1.3. The term “soil” has various meanings according to use and function processes 5</p> <p>1.4. The concept of soil varies according to the user 6</p> <p>1.4.1. Agricultural sector 7</p> <p>1.4.2. Scientific communities 7</p> <p>1.4.3. Urban communities 8</p> <p>1.4.4. Current pressures and questions 8</p> <p>1.5. The approaches and procedures of soil scientists and pedologists 9</p> <p>1.6. Two principles to take into account: geographical continuity and multi-temporality 10</p> <p>1.6.1. Principle of continuity 10</p> <p>1.6.2. Principle of multi-temporality 13</p> <p>1.7. Nature, organization and major modes of soil processes 15</p> <p>1.7.1. Soils before the arrival of humans 15</p> <p>1.7.2. Specifics and origins of the Earth’s soils 17</p> <p>1.7.3. The parameters controlling differentiation and diversity of soils 18</p> <p>1.8. The functions and services of soils 23</p> <p>1.8.1. Major functions 23</p> <p>1.8.2. Services provided by soils 24</p> <p>1.8.3. The role of soils within our culture and our history 25</p> <p>1.9. The need and significance of soil information systems 29</p> <p>1.10. Conclusion and recommendation 29</p> <p>1.11. Bibliography 30</p> <p><b>Chapter 2. Understanding Soils for Their More Efficient Management: A National Soil Information System 35<br /></b><i>Marion BARDY, Dominique ARROUAYS, Claudy JOLIVET, Bertrand LAROCHE, Christine LE BAS, Manuel MARTIN, Céline RATIÉ, Anne C. RICHER-DE-FORGES, Nicolas SABY, Véronique ANTONI, Antonio BISPO, Michel BROSSARD, Jean-Luc FORT, Joëlle SAUTER and Chantal GASCUEL</i></p> <p>2.1. Introduction 35</p> <p>2.2. The inventory and monitoring of soils in Europe and in the world 36</p> <p>2.3. National mechanisms for the acquisition of soil data 37</p> <p>2.3.1. Issues and demands 37</p> <p>2.3.2. Structuring of national data collection mechanisms 38</p> <p>2.4. Data exploitation for the production of maps and indicators 44</p> <p>2.5. Dissemination and availability of data 49</p> <p>2.5.1. A national soil information system focused on data dissemination 49</p> <p>2.5.2. A progressive enrichment of data and metadata supply 50</p> <p>2.5.3. Assisting the use, improvement and control of data 52</p> <p>2.6. Conclusion 52</p> <p>2.7. Bibliography 53</p> <p><b>Chapter 3. Soils and Regulation of the Hydrological Cycle 9<br /></b><i>Marc VOLTZ, Cécile DAGÈS, Laurent PRÉVOT and Ary BRUAND</i></p> <p>3.1. The soil – facilitator within the hydrological cycle 59</p> <p>3.2. Soil control mechanisms 61</p> <p>3.2.1. Infiltration–runoff partition 61</p> <p>3.2.2. Aquifer recharge 65</p> <p>3.2.3. Evaporation and transpiration flows 67</p> <p>3.2.4. Capillary rise 70</p> <p>3.2.5. Soil water budget 71</p> <p>3.2.6. Hydrological flows along hillslopes 72</p> <p>3.3. Impacts on the hydrological cycle at soil cover scale 74</p> <p>3.3.1. Influence of soil and land use variations 75</p> <p>3.3.2. Influence of land use changes 77</p> <p>3.3.3. Influence of landscape infrastructures 78</p> <p>3.4. Conclusions 79</p> <p><b>Chapter 4. Soils as Bio-physicochemical Reactors 81<br /></b><i>Fabienne TROLARD and Guilhem BOURRIÉ</i></p> <p>4.1. What is a reactor? 81</p> <p>4.2. Soil components 85</p> <p>4.3. Reactivity drivers 86</p> <p>4.4. Main reactions within soils 90</p> <p>4.4.1. Master variables: pH and pe 90</p> <p>4.4.2. Acid–base reactions 91</p> <p>4.4.3. Reactions of oxido-reduction 94</p> <p>4.4.4. Degradation of organic matter 95</p> <p>4.5. Biogeochemical evolution of the Earth’s surface and the consequences for soils 96</p> <p>4.5.1. Availability of chemical elements changed with the Earth’s evolution 96</p> <p>4.5.2. The evolution of the Earth’s reactor imposed the evolution of living organisms 99</p> <p>4.5.3. Emergence of the “soil” function within the Critical Zone 101</p> <p>4.6. Soil, biogeochemical reactor of soil formation 103</p> <p>4.6.1. Vertical dynamics of soils: the lowering of horizons within landscapes 105</p> <p>4.6.2. Lateral dynamics of soil and transformations of soil covers 107</p> <p>4.6.3. Lateral dynamics by epigenesis (replacement) 111</p> <p>4.7. Soil structure: a case of “soft matter” 112</p> <p>4.8. Bibliography 113</p> <p><b>Chapter 5. Soils are Biosystems, Habitats and Reserves of Biodiversity 117<br /></b><i>Jacques BERTHELIN, Éric BLANCHART, Jean TRAP and Jean Charles MUNCH</i></p> <p>5.1. Introduction 117</p> <p>5.2. Emergence and development of microbial ecology and soil biology 118</p> <p>5.2.1. Discovery of the microbial world, a turning point in the knowledge of the functioning of soil–plant systems 118</p> <p>5.2.2. Discovery of the role of fauna and development of soil biology 119</p> <p>5.3. Soil microbial communities 119</p> <p>5.3.1. Richness and diversity of microbial communities 119</p> <p>5.3.2. Evolution of methodologies in soil microbial ecology 123</p> <p>5.4. Diversity of energy and nutritional pathways of microorganisms, key players in biogeochemical cycles 124</p> <p>5.4.1. Heterotrophy, autotrophy and extreme environments 124</p> <p>5.4.2. Soils, environments where life is active with or without oxygen 125</p> <p>5.5. Richness and diversity of soil fauna 126</p> <p>5.5.1. Diversity of soil fauna 126</p> <p>5.5.2. Classification by size 127</p> <p>5.5.3. Functional classification sensu lato 127</p> <p>5.5.4. Characterization of the fauna 128</p> <p>5.6. Soils, environments with energy and nutritional conditions favorable to microbial life and fauna 128</p> <p>5.7. Determinants and remarkable sites of diversity and soil biological activities 129</p> <p>5.7.1. Parameters and major activity sites 129</p> <p>5.7.2. Impact of land use 130</p> <p>5.7.3. Humus, integrators and developers of specific biological activities 131</p> <p>5.7.4. The rhizosphere, a site of major interactions of soil–plant systems 132</p> <p>5.8. Tools for understanding the habitats of soil organisms 133</p> <p>5.9. Specificities of the soil fauna 133</p> <p>5.9.1. Microregulators 134</p> <p>5.9.2. The communities of organisms called “engineers” 134</p> <p>5.10. Soil organisms: ecosystem service actors 135</p> <p>5.11. Soil quality indicators 137</p> <p>5.11.1. Soil organisms as indicators 137</p> <p>5.11.2. Ecological functions as indicators 138</p> <p>5.12. Conclusion and perspectives 138</p> <p>5.13. Bibliography 139</p> <p><b>Chapter 6. Soils, a Factor in Plant Production:Agroecosystems 147<br /></b><i>Claire CHENU, Jean ROGER-ESTRADE, Chantal GASCUEL and Christian WALTER</i></p> <p>6.1. Introduction 147</p> <p>6.2. Evolution of soil–agriculture relationship over the last few decades 148</p> <p>6.3. Agricultural capability of soils 150</p> <p>6.3.1. How do we define the agricultural capability of a soil? 150</p> <p>6.3.2. Limited soil resources on a global scale 154</p> <p>6.4. Agricultural practices that alter soil properties 155</p> <p>6.5. Toward sustainable management of agricultural soils 158</p> <p>6.6. Conclusion 161</p> <p><b>Chapter 7. Forest Soils: Characteristics and Sustainability 163<br /></b><i>Jacques RANGER</i></p> <p>7.1. Forest soils 163</p> <p>7.2. Bioavailability of nutrients: soil–plant coevolution and the role of the biological cycle 165</p> <p>7.3. Concept of forest soil fertility 170</p> <p>7.4. Specificity of forest soils compared to agricultural soils 171</p> <p>7.5. Threats to forest soils 175</p> <p>7.5.1. Acidification 175</p> <p>7.5.2. Physical degradation 177</p> <p>7.5.3. The particular problem of organic carbon: soil fertility and climate change 179</p> <p>7.5.4. Maintaining biodiversity 180</p> <p>7.5.5. Pollution 181</p> <p>7.5.6. Disappearance of forest soils 181</p> <p>7.6. Conclusions 181</p> <p>7.7. Bibliography 183</p> <p><b>Chapter 8. Soils and Energy 187<br /></b><i>Isabelle FEIX</i></p> <p>8.1. Soils at the heart of global issues 187</p> <p>8.2. Energy context 188</p> <p>8.3. Soils, energy supports and energy suppliers 190</p> <p>8.3.1. Forest and agricultural biomass production: for bioenergy production 190</p> <p>8.3.2. Physical supports of renewable energy: ground-mounted photovoltaic power plants and onshore wind turbines 190</p> <p>8.3.3. Heat and freshness supplies: horizontal superficial geothermal energy and climatic wells 191</p> <p>8.3.4. Peat: formerly used as a biofuel 191</p> <p>8.4. The consequences of energy production on mobilization, occupation and land-use change 192</p> <p>8.4.1. Comparison of land use intensities and land area occupations for energy production 194</p> <p>8.4.2. Comparison of land use changes related to different energies 202</p> <p>8.4.3. Consequences of energy policies for land mobilization and LUC 204</p> <p>8.4.4. Optimization of land use 206</p> <p>8.5. Impacts of energy production on soil loss, degradation and quality 207</p> <p>8.5.1. Impacts common to all energies 207</p> <p>8.5.2. Peat 208</p> <p>8.5.3. Fossil fuels 208</p> <p>8.5.4. Nuclear energy 208</p> <p>8.5.5. Solar and wind energies 209</p> <p>8.5.6. Bioenergies 210</p> <p>8.6. Conclusion 217</p> <p>8.7. Bibliography 219</p> <p><b>Chapter 9. Soils, Materials, and Infrastructure Supports 233<br /></b><i>Guilhem BOURRIÉ and Fabienne TROLARD</i></p> <p>9.1. The use of “raw” soils as building materials 233</p> <p>9.2. Soils, infrastructure supports 236</p> <p>9.3. The classical civil engineering versus the physical approach of granular media 237</p> <p>9.4. Consumption of agricultural land, forest or natural areas by urban sprawl 239</p> <p>9.5. The use of separate particle size fractions 242</p> <p>9.5.1. The use of coarse fractions 242</p> <p>9.5.2. The use of the clay fraction as material and reaction support 242</p> <p>9.5.3. The use of the soil organic fraction 243</p> <p>9.5.4. The use of soil oxides 243</p> <p>9.6. The use of chemical elements after extraction and treatment 243</p> <p>9.7. Bibliography 244</p> <p><b>Chapter 10. Cultural Dimensions of Soils 247<br /></b><i>Suzanne MÉRIAUX and Michel-Claude GIRARD</i></p> <p>10.1. Soil representations – the Earth celebrated 247</p> <p>10.1.1. The written Earth 248</p> <p>10.1.2. The illustrated Earth 251</p> <p>10.1.3. The Earth with sound 254</p> <p>10.2. Humanity, Earth and soil: myths and rites 258</p> <p>10.2.1. Defining myths 259</p> <p>10.2.2. Earth and soils in myths 259</p> <p>10.2.3. Myths 261</p> <p>10.2.4. Rites 268</p> <p>10.2.5. Analogies with the pedological approach? 269</p> <p>10.2.6. Links between humans and earth/soils 270</p> <p>10.2.7. Conclusion 271</p> <p>10.3. Bibliography 272</p> <p><b>Chapter 11. Environmental and Societal Memories of Soils 275<br /></b><i>Marie-Agnès COURTY</i></p> <p>11.1. Ancient soils: archives of human history 275</p> <p>11.1.1. Objectives 275</p> <p>11.1.2. Soil memory and climate change 276</p> <p>11.1.3. Memory of ancient soils and societies 278</p> <p>11.2. Methods of studying soil memory 279</p> <p>11.2.1. The field approach 279</p> <p>11.2.2. Analytical characterization 281</p> <p>11.3. Reading the ancient soil memory 282</p> <p>11.3.1. Foundations 282</p> <p>11.3.2. Sedimentary features 283</p> <p>11.3.3. Combustion features 285</p> <p>11.3.4. Soil features 287</p> <p>11.4. Conclusion and perspectives 294</p> <p>11.5. Bibliography 295</p> <p><b>Chapter 12. A Mesological Point of View 299<br /></b><i>Pierre DONADIEU</i></p> <p>12.1. Soil ubiquity 299</p> <p>12.2. Soil as 301</p> <p>12.3. Off-ground? 303</p> <p>12.4. Living off-ground 304</p> <p>12.5. Limits of the off-ground 307</p> <p>12.6. Conclusion 309</p> <p>12.7. Bibliography 309</p> <p>List of Authors 311</p> <p>Index 315</p>