Year of publication
1984
Excerpt
A review is given of past soil research activities in the three main regions of humid tropical lowland forest, viz South-East Asia, Central Africa and the Amazon region of Latin America. A number of national and international soil- related research programmes is nowadays in execution or under consideration, often as networks. an effort is made to identify major knowledge gaps and research priorities per sub discipline of soil science (soil genesis, classification and cartography; soil mineralogy, physics and chemistry; soil biology, fertility and plant nutrition; soil technology and conservation). It is stresses that site selection for studies on soil-plant relationships should be done in relation to major soil geographic patterns, to ensure that the results can be extrapolated to large areas with similar soil conditions. New and existing sites should be studied and described very carefully and comprehensively as regards soil characteristics