Plant and Soil Interfaces and Interactions: Proceedings of the International Symposium: Plant and Soil: Interfaces and Interactions. Wageningen, The Netherlands August 6–8, 1986(28 Developments in Plant and Soil Sciences)

Forty years ago, when PLANT AND SOIL first appeared, Europe was still recovering from the devastating effects of World War II. During the war years, work in many centres of agricultural research had come to a virtual standstill. Buildings and equipment were destroyed, scientists were often forced to terminate their research and teaching activities and funds allocated to such work were diverted to other, at that time, more pressing needs. During the first post-war years reconstruction was undertaken with great zeal and in that light the founding of the new journal PLANT AND SOIL must be viewed. In the pre-war period most agricultural science journals were still primarily national ones and consequently many articles were published in languages mastered by only a limited number of potential readers. In small countries whose languages are not widely understood, the desire arose to publish research findings in one of the major languages. It is therefore understandable that in the early years of the journal's existence, large portions of PLANT AND SOIL were filled with articles from the Scandinavian countries and The Nether­ lands. Originally, rather frequent use was made of the opportunity to publish also in German and French, but with the advance of English as a major language of communication, a decline was noticeable in the number of German and French manuscripts submitted. As a consequence the Edi­ torial Board has recently decided to terminate the publishing of articles in these languages.

Table of Contents:
Nitrogen fertilization in citrus orchards.- Soil-oxygen and plant-root interaction: An electrical analog study.- Effect of calcium on the absorption and translocation of heavy metals in excised barley roots: Multicompartment transport box experiment.- Influence of differences in nutrition on important quality characteristics of some agricultural crops.- Nitrogen transformation processes in relation to improved cultural practices for lowland rice.- Nitrogen budgets in flooded soils used for rice production.- The effects of low, regulated supplies of nitrate and ammonium nitrogen on the growth and composition of perennial ryegrass.- Changes in P forms and availability as influenced by management practices.- The mechanism of rock phosphate solubilization in the rhizosphere.- The rock-phosphate solubilizing capacity of Pueraria javanica as affected by soil pH, superphosphate priming effect and symbiotic N2 fixation.- Relative efficiency of nitrogen fixation and the occurrence of hydrogenase in pea root nodules.- Metabolism and translocation of fixed nitrogen in the nodulated legume.- Co-evolution of the legume-Rhizobium association.- Endophyte transmission and activity in the Anabaena-Azolla association.- 15N-determined effect of inoculation with N2 fixing bacteria on nitrogen assimilation in Western Canadian wheats.- Total and CO-reactive heme content of actinorhizal nodules and the roots of some non-nodulated plants.- Biological control of nematodes: Soil amendments and microbial antagonists.- Practical aspects of mycorrhizal technology in some tropical crops and pastures.- Effect of spore concentration on germination and autotropism in Trichoderma hamatum.- The effect of fertilization on litter decomposition in clearfelled spruce stands.- The effect of spray volume on spray partitioning between plant and soil.- Comparative Study of soil bacterial flora as influenced by the application of a pesticide, pentachloorphenol (PCP).- Response of cassava to water stress.- Activity of root systems of six plant species at different stages of development.