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Soils of South Africa

The book Soils of South Africa (their distribution, properties, classification, use, and environmental significance) provides a comprehensive overview of South Africa’s soil resources in four chapters, the first since the 1940 publication of the Soil Groups and Sub-Groups of South Africa was issued. Chapter One introduces the soil groups and the naming of forms and families, the basis of the soil classification of SouthAfrica. In short, it provides a key to the 14 recognized soil groups, the associated soil forms, and the diagnostic characteristics used to identify the soil. A brief description of each soil group complements the chapter. Chapter Two comprehensively describes the distribution, properties, classification, genesis, and use of the South African soils. High-quality color photographs illustrate the characteristics of each soil group and an accompanying map shows the occurrence of the soil group in estimated percentages within land types. For some soil groups, for example, the Organic Soils and the Podzolic Soils, the resulting maps are almost white as they hardly occur in South Africa; other maps show that soil groups like the Oxidic, Plinthic, Cumulic, and Lithic Soils occur extensively. Tables provide an overview of the forms that are recognized in the soil group and their constituent families together with the criteria that separate the families. International correlation of the soil forms is given as an approximate placement in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources of 2006 and the USDA Soil Taxonomy of 2003. In Chapter Three an overview is given of the relationship that macroscopic animals have with soils; no attention is given to the microscopic soil fauna. In several sections, the influence on the soil and the use of soil material by termites, termiteand ant-eating animals, earthworms, moles, rodents, honey badgers, insects and spiders, birds, and large herbivores is described. The examples given are not exhaustive; for example, the erosive effect that hippos can have on steeper river banks is not mentioned. Nevertheless, this surprising and nicely illustrated part of the book is one of the few comprehensive overviews of the ways animals may affect the soil. Chapter Four gives detailed field descriptions and relevant analytical data of 37 modal soil profiles that illustrate each of the soil groups. All profiles have an additional section on points of interest and interpretation. It is unfortunate that in Arid Land Research and Management, 25:200–201, 2011 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 1532-4982 print=1532-4990 online DOI: 10.1080/15324982.2011.554960