The Mineral Fertilizer-Dependent Chemical Parameters of Soil Acidification under Field Conditions

Przemysław Tkaczyk, Agnieszka Mocek-Płóciniak, Monika Skowrońska, Wiesław Bednarek, Sebastian Kuśmierz and Elżbieta Zawierucha
Additional contact information
Przemysław Tkaczyk: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry, University of Life Sciences, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Agnieszka Mocek-Płóciniak: Department of General and Environmental Microbiology, Poznań University of Life Sciences, 60-656 Poznań, Poland
Monika Skowrońska: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry, University of Life Sciences, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Wiesław Bednarek: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry, University of Life Sciences, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Sebastian Kuśmierz: Department of Agricultural and Environmental Chemistry, University of Life Sciences, 20-950 Lublin, Poland
Elżbieta Zawierucha: Department of Nursing, Midwifery and Emergency Medicine, Jan Kochanowski University, 25-369 Kielce, Poland

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 17, 1-11

Abstract: Soil acidification in agroecosystems is a natural process that could be accelerated, mainly by the inappropriate application of mineral fertilizers, or prevented, by sustainable management practices. On the basis of a three-year field study in a grassland agroecosystem, the impact of different rates of fertilization with nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) on soil chemical parameters related to soil acidity was evaluated. It was found that high-rate fertilization with ammonium nitrate accelerated the soil acidification process, which was additionally intensified by the application of superphosphate and potassium salt. The sum of exchangeable base cations, the values of base saturation and hydrolytic acidity in the soil reflected the interactions between the applied NPK-fertilizer levels. Considering chemical parameters related to soil acidity studied in this experiment, it seems that the best strategies for mitigating soil acidification in grasslands are reducing nitrate leaching, changing fertilizer types and increasing the input of base cations.

Keywords: nitrogen fertilizers; phosphorus fertilizers; potassium fertilizers; grasslands; soil pH; acid cations; base cations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/7165/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/17/7165/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:17:p:7165-:d:407764

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().