ABSTRACT
Soils are products of the interaction of climate and organisms on geological materials, in particular topographic settings. This interaction, integrated over time, has resulted in a wide variety of soils (Jenny, 1941). Any given soil is subject to disturbance-disturbance that may modify climate, organisms, and even topography. Disturbance may directly modify the milieu of solids, liquids, and gases, organics and inorganics, and the living and dead materials that compose the soil matrix. In this chapter we examine how additions of inorganic fertilizer materials modify soil, soil fertility, and soil processes. Such additions may be viewed as disturbance, but often this disturbance is vital to enhancing soil fertility and concomitant increases in plant and animal yields.
