Many pedologists share the sentiment that a more comprehensive textbook is needed for the fi eld of soil genesis and geomorphol-

ogy. Schaetzl and Anderson have published a textbook that comes close to satisfying this need. As stated in the preface, their goal is to “produce a soil science text that could serve both as an initial soils text and as a cutting-edge resource book of research grade.” While reviewing this text, I have also frequently used it as a resource.

The text is organized into three parts: (1) The Building Blocks of the Soil, 2) Soil Genesis: From Parent Material to Soil, and 3) Soil Geomorphology. The book is well written and organized in a meaning-ful fashion. The writing style, however, is not entirely consistent; some chapters are quite brief and less descriptive than others. The authors have compiled an extensive bibliography and have diligently crystallized a large body of literature into an easily readable form, a defi nite plus for students. Nearly every page contains at least one (often several) highly relevant and effective fi gure or table, most of which have been redrawn from the literature and are of high quality.

In Part 1 (Chapters 1–7), the authors provide background in soil science and the descriptive tools used in pedology. This section begins with a brief introduction followed by chapters on basic concepts in soil science, including morphology, horizons, mineralogy, physics, organ-isms, and classifi cation and mapping. In most instances, the chapters are overly generalized, to the point where they are not helpful in pre-paring the reader for concepts discussed in subsequent sections or to provide a college-level background in soil science. Key concepts have been excluded from Part 1; for example, no chapter exists to introduce soil chemistry and biogeochemistry, which if presented in detail, would provide helpful background for later chapters that deal with weathering and processes of soil formation. More detail would also benefi t Chapter 2 to include specifi cs on how soils are described, a key aspect of soil genesis and geomorphology. Chapters 3 and 7, however, nicely outline soil horizon designations and classifi cation. Because of its overly gener-

alized nature, the material in much of this section may not be useful for college-level courses.

Part 2 (Chapters 8–12 ) is an excellent synthesis of mainstream and less-conventional pedologic paradigms. It contains a great deal of use-ful material for graduate or undergraduate college courses in soil gen-esis. Chapters 8–10 emphasize the factors and processes that form soils and present an original discussion and comparison of several models of soil genesis, a concept that is missing from other textbooks in this fi eld. Chapters 11 and 12 provide an outstanding summary of pro-cesses, models, and concepts of soil formation that should be read by all students studying soils. The strength of this section is that it empha-sizes many less-traditional concepts of soil genesis as well as the more accepted theories. The fi gures here are exceptional. This section is ideal reading material for college courses in soil genesis and geomorphology.

The third and fi nal part (Chapters 13–16), blends geomorphol-ogy case studies with concepts in hydrology, dating techniques, and paleoenvironmental reconstruction, followed by a brief conclusion and perspectives chapter. Chapter 13, titled “Soil Geomorphology and Hydrology,” is informative but would benefi t from a more thorough discussion of how soil stratigraphy infl uences hillslope and watershed hydrology. Chapter 14 contains several excellent examples of quantita-tive approaches to surface exposure dating. Chapter 15 is very infor-mative, providing thorough descriptions of pedologic approaches in paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Perhaps lacking in this section is an emphasis of the applied nature of soil genesis and geomorphology, although this is not the focus of the text. Chapters 14 and 15 would be quite useful in graduate courses in pedology and paleoecology.

As with other textbooks in this fi eld, this book contains some gaps and minor weaknesses. Parts of this text will be very useful in the class-room, whereas other portions may be less so, depending on the scope of the course. The greatest strength of this text is that it offers a fresh look at soil genesis, blending a variety of concepts and paradigms of the science that are not traditionally addressed together. It serves as an excellent summary of pedogenic theory and should occupy the shelves of all pedologists and students of soil science. Likewise, it would serve as very useful text for other disciplines, particularly the fi eld sciences such as ecology, geology, range management, forestry, and geomorphol-ogy. The overwhelming effort dedicated to compiling such a long list of fi gures from peer-reviewed literature makes this a tremendous resource for students and teachers. Overall, I found this text to be a very good resource.

Soils: Genesis and Geomorphology

by Randall Schaetzl and Sharon Anderson, Cambridge University Press, New York. 2005. Hardcover. 817 pages. ISBN 0-521-

81201-1.

Anthony O’Geen

Dep. of Land, Air, and Water Resources, University of California,

Davis, CA 95616. *Corresponding author (atogeen@ucdavis.edu).

Vadose Zone J. 6:265

doi:10.2136/vzj2007.0030br

© Soil Science Society of America677 S. Segoe Rd. Madison, WI 53711 USA.All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmit-ted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Published online April 9, 2007