Agriculture and the nitrogen cycle : assessing the impacts of fertilizer use on food production and the environment /

The Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE) has published 65 volumes, of which this is the most recent. An international team of editors, with 75 authors, reviews all aspects of agriculture and the nitrogen cycle in 19 chapters, citing about 400 original research publications. Five chapters consider global issues, such as driving forces, constraints, and societal responses; four cover specific low-input systems such as much of sub-Saharan Africa; and three look at high-input examples, such as midwestern US maize. The final seven chapters focus on the interaction of the N cycle with other nutrients, regional and global scale N fluxes, issues of balancing N inputs to food production, and environmental preservation. Missing data, difficult policy issues, and the challenges of projecting future circumstances are identified. The complexity of crosscutting issues and cyclic interactions results in a sometimes-fragmented presentation. Not a book to be read straight through but useful as a resource, this work packs a large amount of information into a relatively small volume. An advanced presentation, it will be of most use to economists, ecologists, and policy makers, including advanced students and professionals. It is suitable for a special topics course at the university level. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. L. C. Davis Kansas State University