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Soils of the Amazon region

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The Amazon

Part of the book series: Monographiae Biologicae ((MOBI,volume 56))

Abstract

In the world at large, and more in particular in the United States of America and Western Europe, an academic and popular preoccupation with the global conservation of the human environment has made scientists and environmental activists wary of the effects of drastic intervention in the ecological balance of the immense Amazon region (more than 500 million ha). Fears are expressed about upsetting the world’s supply of oxygen or the level of carbondioxide in the atmosphere, and there is concern for the future of what is left of the Amerindian tribes. Also, the notion prevails in these circles that the region would turn either into impenetrable laterite rock or into sterile white sand on which any recuperation of the forest vegetation would be impossible and agricultural settlement an utter failure (e.g. McNeil 1964; Goodland & Irwin 1974). Recently, these arguments are being voiced in the countries concerned as well.

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Authors
  1. W. G. Sombroek
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Abt. Tropenökologie, Max-Planck-Institut für Limnologie, Postfach 165, D-2320, Plön, W. Germany

    Harald Sioli

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© 1984 Dr. W. Junk Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster

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Sombroek, W.G. (1984). Soils of the Amazon region. In: Sioli, H. (eds) The Amazon. Monographiae Biologicae, vol 56. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6542-3_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-6542-3_20

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-009-6544-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-6542-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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