Soil science reference books

More than half a million soil science papers have been published since the 1920s. In addition, a large number of books are being published. This paper focuses on the seven major soil reference books that were published between 2000 and 2012: Handbook of Soil Science (2000 and 2012), Encyclopedia of Soil Science (2002 and 2006), Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environment (2005), Encyclopedia of Soil Science (2008), and Soil Science — Reference collection (2009). These soils science reference books contain 1920 articles (12,295 pages) authored by some 2000 authors. The Handbook of Soil Science covers the basic subdisciplines (physics, chemistry, biology, pedology) most extensively whereas the encyclopedia have more applied entries/articles. Overall, these intradisciplinary reference works show that the soil science discipline is vibrant and has a rapidly expanding knowledge base.