The role of biota in soil profile formation and soil functioning: new materials and interpretation of well-known facts and existing concepts

Review of the monograph by A.D. Fokin and S.P. Torshin “Plants in the Life of Soils and Terrestrial Ecosystems. Nontraditional Approaches and Solutions on the Behavior of Biologically Significant Elements” published in 2020 by Lap Lambert Academic Publishing, ISBN 978-620-2-53005-7. In the monograph by A.D. Fokin and S.P. Torshin, the reader finds an original and not always traditional for soil scientists, consideration and discussion of a number of fundamental problems of the development of a soil profile and modern soil functioning and of the role of plants and microorganisms in these processes. The authors of the monograph make us think about the validity of some generally accepted concepts and hypothesis, especially those concerning transport flows of matter in soils and their modeling. Attention is drawn to the usually underestimated role of the uplifting - ascending fluxes of matter along the conductive systems of plants, and to the localization of living roots and organic residues in soils. The latter factor plays an important role in the development of intrahorizontal differentiation of the soil material and in the root nutrition of plants. The great advantage of the book is the availability of abundant experimental material obtained by unique methods developed by the authors, simple and effective, which have no analogues in the world literature. Application of these methods, allows, in particular, determining the lifetime of the aggregate in soddy-podzolic soils and establishing the trends in the root uptake of radionuclides from the surface and from the inner part of peds. In the end a general conclusion is formulated that in the course of modern soil functioning, the soil-profile redistribution of matter is performed mainly within the limits of the biological cycle of elements. Many of the problems and ideas discussed in the monograph go far beyond the soil science, therefore the book is of great interest for a wide range of specialists in environmental and plant sciences, in agricultural chemistry, forestry and in various branches of geosciences.