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Mineral Nutrition of Plants: Principles and Perspectives, Second Edition

Emanuel Epstein and Arnold J. Bloom

2005
380 pages, 134 illustrations
casebound

About This Title

Nearly all the chemical elements that make up living things are mineral elements, the ultimate source of which is rock weathered into soil. In the thoroughly revised Second Edition of Mineral Nutrition of Plants: Principles and Perspectives, Epstein and Bloom explain that plant roots "mine" these nutrient elements from their inorganic substrate and introduce them into the realm of living things. The authors trace the subsequent movement of these nutrients into other plant organs, tissues, cells, and organelles, their biochemical assimilation, and their functions in plant physiology and metabolism. Treatment of these processes extends from molecular biology through global biogeochemistry. The text, illustrated in full color, is accessible both to undergraduate students in plant physiology, agronomy, horticulture, and environmental studies and to researchers in these and other plant biological fields.

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About the Author(s)

Emanuel Epstein is Research Professor in the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources-Soils and Biogeochemistry at the University of California at Davis. He received his Ph.D. in Plant Physiology from the University of California at Berkeley. Among the awards and honors Dr. Epstein has received are a Guggenheim Fellowship and two Senior Fulbright Research Scholarships. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and has served as President of the Pacific Division of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His research interests include: mineral nutrition of plants; ion transport; salt relations of plants; silicon in plant biology; and genetic and ecological aspects of all these topics.

Arnold J. Bloom is Professor in the Department of Vegetable Crops at the University of California at Davis. He received his Ph.D. in Biological Sciences from Stanford University. Widely published in scientific journals, Dr. Bloom has been a principal contributor (on mineral nutrition) to two editions of another Sinauer Associates book: Plant Physiology (Lincoln Taiz and Eduardo Zeiger). His research focus is environmental stress physiology, with an emphasis on the interactions among nutrient acquisition and photosynthesis, temperature stress in crops, and root perception of the rhizosphere.

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Reviews and Commentary

"Every now and then an undergraduate textbook appears that is both useful to its target audience and a pleasure for more experienced readers. This current revision of Epstein's 1971 classic with the same title is such a book. This new version maintains the first edition's clear and engaging prose and adds Bloom's expertise in plant physiology and biochemistry, as well as extremely elegant and helpful graphics. … When my colleagues tell me they are planning to write a textbook, I lend them Epstein and Bloom's volume to show them how it should be done."
—Manuel Lerdau, The Quarterly Review of Biology

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Table of Contents

PART I. ELEMENTS

  1. Introduction and History
    • The Scope of Mineral Plant Nutrition
    • The History of Plant Nutrition Research
    • References
  2. The Media of Plant Nutrition
    • The Variety of Nutrient Media
    • Soil
    • Roots in Soil
    • Artificial Media
    • Nutrient Solutions
    • Culture Solutions Compared with Soil Solutions
    • References
  3. Inorganic Components of Plants
    • Water
    • Dry Matter
    • Mineral Composition
    • Essential and Other Mineral Elements
    • Macronutrient Elements
    • Micronutrient Elements
    • Comparative Elemental Requirements of Higher Plants
    • Quantitative Considerations
    • Deficiencies and Tissue Analyses
    • Deficiency Symptoms: General Discussion
    • Deficiency Symptoms: Individual Elements
    • References

PART II. TRANSPORT

  1. Nutrient Absorption by Plants
    • The Need for a Membrane
    • Membrane Structure
    • Apoplast and Cell Walls
    • The Structure of Plant Cells
    • Passive versus Active Transport of Solutes
    • Active Solute Transport into Cells and Tissue
    • Algae as Model Systems
    • Root Solute Transport
    • Energy Coupling
    • Solute Transporters
    • References
  2. Upward Movement of Water and Nutrients
    • Cellular versus Long-Distance Transport
    • Pores, Pipes, and Pathways
    • Tissues and Organs
    • Movement of Water through the Plant
    • Upward Movement of Ions
    • Beyond the Leaf
    • References
  3. Downward Movement of Food and Nutrients
    • Basic Dilemma
    • Again: Pores, Pipes, and Pathways
    • Speed of Phloem Transport
    • Direction of Phloem Transport
    • Pressure Flow Hypothesis
    • Phloem Transport of Inorganic Solutes
    • References

PART III. METABOLISM AND GROWTH

  1. Nitrogen and Sulfur: A Tale of Two Nutrients
    • Nitrogen in the Environment
    • Little Shop of Horrors
    • Biological Nitrogen Fixation
    • Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixation
    • Courtship between Legumes and Rhizobia
    • Mycorrhizal Associations
    • Ammonium and Nitrate
    • Nitrogen Assimilation
    • Nitrate Assimilation
    • Ammonium Assimilation
    • Sulfur in the Environment
    • Sulfate Assimilation
    • Nitrogen and Sulfur Regulation
    • References
  2. Mineral Metabolism
    • Cell Components
    • Elements
    • Boron
    • Calcium
    • Chlorine
    • Copper
    • Iron
    • Magnesium
    • Manganese
    • Molybdenum
    • Nickel
    • Nitrogen
    • Phosphorus
    • Potassium
    • Silicon
    • Sodium
    • Sulfur
    • Zinc
    • References
  3. Nutrition and Growth
    • Nutrition of Seeds
    • Developmental Stages and Root Growth
    • Root Hairs and Lateral Roots
    • Plant Regulation of Nutrients
    • Seasonal Dynamics
    • Photosynthesis, Primary Productivity, and Nutrients
    • Crop Yields and Nutrient Efficiency
    • Testing for Nutrients
    • References

PART IV. HEREDITY AND ENVIRONMENT

  1. Physiological Genetics and Molecular Biology
    • For the Common Good
    • Wild versus Domesticated Species
    • Molecular Biology of Plant-Nutrient Relations
    • References
  2. Ecology and Environmental Stress
    • Plant Physiological Ecology
    • Population Biology
    • Communities
    • Environmental Stress
    • Temperature Stress
    • Water Stress
    • Nutrient Stress
    • References
  3. Big Picture: Past, Present, Future
    • A Brief History of the World
    • Global Climate Change
    • Nutrient Cycling
    • Predictions
    • References

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Mineral Nutrition of Plants: Principles and Perspectives, Second Edition
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