Adaptive Soil Management : From Theory to Practices

The book focuses in detail on learning and adapting through partnerships between managers, scientists, and other stake-holders who learn together how to create and maintain sustainable resource systems. As natural areas shrink and fragment, our ability to sustain economic growth and safeguard biological diversity and ecological integrity is increasingly being put to the test. In attempting to meet this unprecedented challenge, adaptive management is becoming a viable alternative for broader application. Adaptive management is an iterative decision-making process which is both operationally and conceptually simple and which incorporates users to acknowledge and account for uncertainty, and sustain an operating environment that promotes its reduction through careful planning, evaluation, and learning until the desired results are achieved.

This multifaceted approach requires clearly defined management objectives to guide decisions about what actions to take, and explicit assumptions about expected outcomes to compare against actual outcomes. In this edited book, we address the issue by pursuing a holistic and systematic approach that utilizes natural resources to reap sustainable environmental, economic and social benefits for adap-tive management, helping to ensure that relationships between land, water and plants are managed in ways that mimic nature.

Amitava Rakshit, an IIT, Kharagpur alumnus is presently the faculty member in the Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry at Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University(IAS, BHU). Dr.Rakshit worked in the Department of Agriculture, Government of West Bengal in administration and extension roles. He has visited Scandinavia, Europe and Africa pertaining to his research work and presentation. He was awarded with TWAS Nxt Fellow (Italy), BiovisionNxt Fellow (France), Darwin Now Bursary(British Council), Young achiever award and Best Teacher's Award at UG and PG level . He is serving as review college member of British Ecological Society, London since 2011. He has published 70 research papers, 15 book chapters, 28 popular articles, one manual and co authored eight books.

Purushothaman C. Abhilash is affiliated as an Assistant Professor in Environmental Science at IESD, BHU. His research interest includes harnessing plant-microbe interactions for the remediation and management of contaminated and degraded lands for biomass and biofuel production and soil carbon sequestration. He is a recipient of INSA Medal for Young Scientist, NASI-Platinum Jubilee Young Scientist Award and Hiyoshi Young Leaf Award. He is an elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences and an Associate of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He has published 45 research papers and editing two Books. He is serving as an Associate/Academic/Board Editor of Nature Scientific Reports, Biomass and Bioenergy, Restoration Ecology, Environmental Management, PLOS One, Biodegradation, Agronomy for Sustainable Development and Frontiers in Bioenergy.

Harikesh B. Singh is presently Professor of Mycology and Plant Pathology at IAS, BHU. He served state agriculture university, central university and CSIR institute in teaching, research, and extension roles. In recognition of Prof.Singh's scientific contributions and leadership in the field of plant pathology, he was honored with several prestigious awards, notable being, CSIR Prize for Biological Sciences, Vigyan Bharti Award, Prof. V.P. Bhide Memorial Award, BRSI Industrial Medal Award, Bioved Fellowship Award, Prof.PanchananMaheshwari, IPS Plant Pathology Leader Award, CSIR-CAIRD Team award, Environment Conservation Award, CST VigyanRatna Award and many more. Dr. Singh has been the Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences .Prof. Singh has written two books, several training modules and manuals and more than 150 research publications and has more than 18 US patents and 3 PCTs to his credit.

Dr. Subhadip Ghosh is a Senior Researcher (Urban Soils) with Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology (Research), National Parks Board, Singapore. He holds his Bachelor of Science in Agriculture with Honours from BCKV, India and Master's in Soil Science from PAU, Punjab, India with national scholarship. He completed his Ph.D. from the University of New England, Australia and postdoctoral research with Primary Industries and Innovation Centre, New South Wales (NSW), Australia. Dr. Ghosh has published more than 60 scientific articles. He is an Adjunct Lecturer at the University of New England, NSW, Australia. His major fields of research interest are soil quality, GHG emission, carbon sequestration and land-use change, biochar studies, environmental soil science and climate change, nutrient dynamics, and urban and peri-urban soils.