The study of soils is increasingly important due to growing demands on soils by rapidly expanding populations. Volume 15 of Advances in Soil Sciences is a mixed-topic volume in this series; consisting of five critical review articles: 1. VA Mycorrhizae as modifiers of soil fertility (J.M. Barea, Estacion Experimental del Zaidin, Granada, Spain) 2. Argillic horizons in modern loess soils in an ustic soil moisture regime? (A. Bronger, University of Kiel, FRG) 3. Myths and scientific realities of agroforestry as a strategy for sustaining management of soils in the tropics (R. Lal, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH) 4. Land evaluation: from intuition to quantification (C.A. van Diepen et al. Winand Staring Center for Integrated Land, Soil and Water Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands) 5. Crop residue management (R. Prasad, Indian Agri- cultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India)

Contributions by: J M Barea, J a a Berkhout, A Bronger, R Lal, J F Power, Dr R Prasad, C a Van Diepen, H Van Keulen, J Wolf