This new colour atlas is based on the National Soil Inventory of England and Wales, which measured the soil properties and soil geochemistry of nearly 6000 sites located on a regular grid. The raw analytical data has been processed to produce a set of colour maps which clearly display the soil geochemistry of England and Wales. An introduction describes sampling strategy, analytical techniques and data handling, and concludes with a discussion of the main features of the maps. Maps showing topography, solid geology, soil groups, soil texture classes, organic carbon and pH follow, and maps of the major nutrients P, K and Mg are presented. The main body of maps includes the environmentally important elements Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb, Cu and Zn, with "limits" maps providing comparison between the data with EC and UK guidelines and legislation. Other maps cover the elements Ai, Ba, Ca, Co, Fe, Mn, Na and Sr. Each element is accompanied by explanatory text plus figures showing the statistical distribution of the raw data and other useful information.
This book should be of interest to geochemists, chemists, biochemists and geographers working in the environmental and earth sciences, agriculture, the water industry and local authorities who are concerned with soil quality, waste disposal and associated environmental problems.