The economic significance of boron (B) in agriculture, horticulture, and forestry has been beyond dispute for several decades. Even in the last two decades, the areas where B deficiency limits plant production has grown with increased reports from China, south Asia and southeast Asia. The present volume is reflective of the growing awareness of the significance of low soil B with reports from Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, north, central and southern China, India, Nepal, and the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan contained herein. Boron deficiency also continues to be a problem for crop yield and quality in areas where B deficiency has been known for some time, for example in Germany and the USA. The problem of low soil B is not limited to effects on field crop yield, with papers reporting on depressed wood yield and quality in timber trees (Lambert et al. ), and depressed fruit quality (Dong et al. ; Smith et al. : Zude et al. ) also appearing in the present volume. Globally, Shorrocks (1997)1 estimates that ?? tonnes of B fertiliser is applied annually in agriculture. The economic benefits from the use of B fertiliser have not been quantified but are clearly enormous. Paradoxically, the clear economic imperatives for using B fertiliser on low B soils are not matched by a similar clarity of understanding of the role and functions of B in plants.

Klappentext

The present volume and its companion, Boron in Soil and Plants: Reviews, contain the most significant advances in boron nutrition at a time when our understanding of the subject is advancing rapidly. They will serve as authoritative references for researchers, university lecturers and graduate students. There is also sufficient practical information on the use of boron in agriculture, forestry and horticulture for advisers and fertiliser representatives to find these volumes valuable references. For agriculture, horticulture, and forestry, papers on the effectiveness of boron fertilisers and the selection of boron-efficient and boron-tolerant cultivars will attract interest. Physiologists will be interested in new findings on the location of boron in cells, the function of boron in cell walls and the new techniques used for these studies. Boron toxicity is a significant problem in many areas of the world. However, papers in the present volume challenge a long-held dogma of boron research that a narrow range exists between deficiency and toxicity of boron.

Inhalt
Boron Responses in Field Crops. Residual Effects of Boron Fertilizer Application. Methods and Procedures of Boron Determination in Plants and Soils. Diagnosis and Prognosis of Boron Deficiency. Boron x Genotypes Interactions. Boron Responses in Fruit Trees. External Boron Requirements. Physiology and Functions of Boron in Plants. Boron Uptake, Distribution and Retranslocation. Boron in Cell Walls. Boron in Soils. Boron Toxicity and Environmental Impacts of High Boron.