Managing the Heavy Metals on the Land [antikvár]

PREFACE This book has been written in order to explain and summarize the chemical and biological Issues that arise when the products of a sewage system containing heavy metals are applied to agricultural land. It is above all an attempt to clarify a field which will be much debated in the next few years and in which some strong feelings exist, some of which might dissipate if the subject were better understood . The main body of the book uses theoretical concepts and terms which, while familiar to a student of physical chemistry, are strange to many readers who wish to inform themselves on the central issues at stake. (This is a perpetual problem with the world of soil, in which one can travel only a small way before facing such concepts.) For the benefit of the more general reader, a summary chapter has been written which precedes the main book and can be read independently. My involvement in the subject began with my work on the trace elements in plant nutrition, both in theory and experiment, during my career at the University of Melbourne. After retiring from the chair of Agricultural Chemistry at that university I wrote a book, Six Trace Elements in Soils, in which six heavy metals were discussed, with special regard to how soils may hold these back from plants in situations where they are vitally needed. I was later invited to summarize the opposite side, namely how soils may hold back heavy metals from plants in situations where they are in excess