An essay on the possible improvement of soil fertility understanding by cooperation with soil physics

In soil physics, states and rates are described using advanced mathematical tools and the results not always conduct to practical recommendations. Soil fertility is based mostly on empirical knowledge and the research leads to recommendations for optimized use of fertilizers and other resources to improve crop performance or reduce environmental impacts. Soil physicists can be of significant help in the challenge of making soil fertility less empirical and more independent of site specific conditions. In this paper some possible contributions of soil physics to questions of soil fertility are described, and the difficulties constraining this cooperation are discussed. Bibliographic survey results indicated that modern Soil physics allows automated measurement, modeling, and prevision of important dynamic soil characteristic that are related to the chemical behavior of soils and to plant nutrition efficiency. A closer interaction could turn soil fertility studies less empirical and wider applicable and soil physics more practical for the understanding and management of agronomic processes.