Download or read book Isotopes and Radiation in Agricultural Sciences: Soil-plant-water relationships written by Michael F. L'Annunziata and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Soil fertility and plant nutrition. Isotope tracers. Autoradiography. Radiation absorption and scattering. Activation analysis. Soil nutrients in relation to plant nutrition. Fertilizer disposition. Plant root distribution. Fertility erosion. Evaluation and prospects. Tracers for soil water management. Neutron moisture gauges. Gamma radiation attenuation. Beta radiation attenuation. Sampling field soils. Soil organic matter studies. Input of organic carbon into soils. Decomposition of isotope-labelled materials in soils. Characterization of soil organic matter. Availability of nutrients released from organic residues. Soil microbiology. Soil sampling and processing. Decomposition of naturally occurring materials. Microbial biomass. Interactions of plants and microbes. Denetrification. Mineralization and immobilization of nitrogen. Biologiccal nitrogen fixation. The detection and measurement of radionuclides. Gas ionization counters. Semiconductor detectors. Semiconductor detector applications. Liquid scintillation counting. Cherenkov counting. Solid scintillation counting. Figure-of-merit. Autoradiography. The measurement of 15N. Principle of detection. Sample preparation techniques. Mass spectrometry. Emission spectrometry. The isotope dilution method.