Ecosystem Services and Tropical Soils of India

This book highlights ecosystem services of Indian tropical soils driven by soil properties. Soils are complex and important biomaterials and have an outstanding role in providing ecosystem services to mankind. The tropical soils have been traditionally and generally considered as either agriculturally poor or virtually useless by many.  This book will discuss the difficulties encountered in managing Indian tropical soils in order to sustain their productivity.  Some unique soil properties are yet to be linked explicitly to soil ecosystem services and soil care needs to be a constant research endeavour in the Indian tropical environment. This book highlights the new and unique soil knowledge base necessary to close the gap between food production and future population growth.

Dr. D.K. Pal obtained M.Sc. (Ag) degree in Agricultural Chemistry with specialization in Soil Science in 1970, and earned his Ph.D. degree in Agricultural Chemistry in 1976 from the Calcutta University. He worked as a DAAD Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Institute of Soil Science, University of Hannover, West Germany during 1980-81. He worked as the Principal Scientist and Head, Division of Soil Resource Studies, ICAR-NBSS & LUP, Nagpur, India and as a visiting scientist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Telangana.

Dr. Pal’s work on the major soil types of tropical environments of India has expanded the basic knowledge in pedology, paleopedology, soil taxonomy, soil mineralogy, soil micromorphology, and edaphology. He also created an internationally recognized school of thought on the development and management of the Indian tropical soils, and has mentored several M.Sc. and Ph.D. students of Land Resource Management. He has delivered numerous prestigious invited lectures at national and international meets and served as a reviewer for many journals of national and international repute, and contributed reviews and book chapters for national and international publishers. Dr. Pal is the life member of many professional national societies in soil and earth science, and has also been conferred with many national awards and fellowships.