Trace Elements in Soil-Plant-Animal Systems

Trace Elements in Soil-Plant-Animal Systems discusses the adverse effects or the essentiality of trace elements in soil, plants, and animals under field and laboratory conditions. The book explores the chemistry, biochemistry, and physics of the availability of trace elements to several organisms, as well as their functions in cell metabolism. Organized into six parts encompassing 24 chapters, the book starts with an overview of the chain of events whereby trace elements are released from different soil and rock sources. The trace elements are then taken up by living organisms, transferred to their sites of action, and function in different metabolic events. The text explores how the trace elements occur in various chemical compounds with varying solubilities. Other chapters explore the principles governing the distribution of elements in minerals and igneous rocks. The final chapter deals with trace element disorders in living organisms. The book is a valuable resource to physicists, chemists, biochemists, geochemists, mineralogists, agriculturists, pedologists, scientists, researchers, and students.