Advances in Agronomy

DONALD L. SPARKS is the Unidel S. Hallock du Pont Chair and Francis Alison Professor at the University of Delaware. He is internationally recognized for his research in the areas of kinetics of biogeochemical processes and surface chemistry of natural materials. His research has focused on fate and transport of trace metals in soil and water, soil remediation, water quality, and carbon sequestration in soils. Dr. Sparks is the author of two previous editions of Environmental Soil Chemistry and more than 350 refereed papers and book chapters. He is fellow of five scientific societies, and he has been the recipient of major awards and lectureships including the Geochemistry Medal from the American Chemical Society, the Liebig Medal from the International Union of Soil Sciences, the Einstein Professorship from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Philippe Duchaufour Medal from the European Geosciences Union. Dr. Sparks served as president of the Soil Science Society of America and the International Union of Soil Sciences, has served on advisory committees for several national laboratories and national and international centers and institutes, and served as chair of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Committee for Soil Sciences and other NAS Committees.

1. PXRF in Tropical Soils: Methodology, Applications, Achievements and Challenges Sergio Henrique Godinho Silva, Bruno Teixeira Ribeiro, Marcelo Braga Bueno Guerra, Hudson Wallace Pereira de Carvalho, Guilherme Lopes, Geila Santos Carvalho, Luiz Roberto Guimaraes Guilherme, Mauro Resende, Marcelo Mancini, Niton Curi, Rogerio Boguete Alves Rafael, Valeria Cardelli, Stefania Cocco, Giuseppe Corti, Somsubhra Chakraborty, Bin Li and David C. Weindorf 2. Quantitative Estimation of Carbon Dynamics in Terrestrial Ecosystems Using Natural Variations in the Abundance of Soils and Biota Phillip M. Chalk, Fabiano C. Balieiro and Deli Chen 3. The Effect of Elemental Sulfur Fertilization on Plant Yields and Soil Properties Grzegorz Kulczycki 4. Environmentally Friendly Agronomically Superior Alternatives to Chemically Processed Phosphate Fertilizers: Phosphate Rock/Sulfur/Acidithiobacillus spp. combinations S. S. S. Rajan and Martin P. Upsdell 5. Automation in Drip Irrigation for Enhancing Water Use Efficiency in Cereal Systems of South Asia: Status and Prospects Ravneet Kaur Sidhu, Ravinder Kumar, Parshant Singh Rana and M. L. Jat