The Response of Soil pH and Exchangeable Al to Alum and Lime Amendments

Christopher Jorelle Gillespie, João Arthur Antonangelo and Hailin Zhang
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Christopher Jorelle Gillespie: Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
João Arthur Antonangelo: Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA
Hailin Zhang: Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK 74078, USA

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-13

Abstract: Intensive cultivation and unprecedented utilization of ammoniacal fertilizer has accelerated soil acidification in the southern Great Plains and many other parts of the world. During a two-year study that evaluated the impact of soil pH and aluminum (Al) toxicity on winter wheat yield potential, we observed a variance in the edaphic responses of the two study sites (Stillwater and Chickasha) to two soil amendments, Alum [Al 2 (SO 4 ) 3 ] and lime [Ca(OH) 2 ]. We found that Al KCl values at Stillwater were 223% and 150% higher than Chickasha during Year 1 and Year 2, respectively, with similar soil pH. Additionally, Al sat values at Stillwater were 30.6% and 24.9% higher than Chickasha during Year 1 and Year 2, respectively. Surprisingly, when treated as a bivariate of Al sat , soil buffer indices differed in graphical structure. While Chickasha was identified with a cubic polynomial ( p < 0.0001), Stillwater was characterized by linear regression ( p < 0.0001). We have reason to believe that this divergence in edaphic response might be attributed to the organically bound Al, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), spatio-temporal variance, and adsorption reactions regulated by the solubility of Al(OH) +2 species in acidic soils.

Keywords: exchangeable aluminum; aluminum saturation; buffer index; dissolved organic carbon; soil organic matter (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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