ABSTRACT
Changing conditions of local and global markets are pressing farmers to achieve ever-increasing crop productivity while maintaining high quality of their agricultural products. This chapter discusses how knowledge about the rhizosphere can be integrated within overall strategies of soil system management, improving plants' nutrient acquisition for better growth, while enhancing plant resistance to biotic and abiotic stress conditions. It discusses the means by which farmers can modify their soil and crop management to focus on rhizosphere dynamics and transactions. The release of organic compounds from plant roots, referred to as rhizodeposits, shows distinct patterns, with spatial and temporal variations depending on the type of released compounds, the plant's stage of development, its genotype, nutritional status, soil properties, microbial degradation, and exposure to stress factors. A change of relevance that can be visualized with radioisotope tracer techniques is the accumulation or depletion of specific mineral nutrients and other elements in the rhizosphere.
