Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T05:13:03.585Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Availability of magnesium in soils

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

A. M. Alston
A. M. Alston
Affiliation:
Ministry of Agriculture for Northern Ireland and Queen's University, Belfast
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Twenty-five soils, including some subsoils, with widely differing properties were cropped with perennial ryegrass in the glasshouse, and measures of Mg availability in the soils were related to the Mg concentration in the plants.

No single measure satisfactorily characterized Mg availability. The ion activity ratio, √aMg/√aca+Mg when the soil neither gained nor lost Mg on equilibration with 0–02 N-CaC12, was more highly correlated (r = 0·;75***) with Mg concentration in the ryegrass than was the best of the capacity measures tested (CaCl2-extractable Mg, r = 0·68***), particularly if the potential buffering capacity (PBCMg) of the soils was also taken into account, in which case r = 0·83***.

Exchangeable Mg (r = 0·67***) was a poorer index of Mg availability than percentage Mg saturation (r = 0·73***) or exchangeable Mg expressed as a percentage of the total exchangeable bases (K, Na, Ca and Mg) in the soil (r = 0·81***). This latter quantity was better than the activity ratio as a predictor of Mg availability (r = 0·81*** compared with r = 0·75***).

A significant proportion of the variation in Mg concentration in the ryegrass could be attributed to the K content of the soils, and closer correlations were obtained when K was included in the composite activity ratio, √aMg/(√aca+Mg + B. aK) (r = 0·88***) or when a term for exchangeable K was included in regression analysis with √aMg/√aca+Mg and PBCMg (r = 0·93***).

The concentration of Mg in equilibrium soil solutions was generally a less satisfactory indicator of Mg availability than were the activity ratios. Soils derived from basaltic parent material had much higher contents of readily exchangeable Mg than the remainder: parent materials other than basalt had little influence on the availability of Mg in the soils. Exchangeable Mg and per cent Mg saturation were higher in gleyed soils than in freely drained soils derived from similar parent material.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 79 , Issue 2 , October 1972 , pp. 197 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acquaye, D. K. & Maclean, A. J. (1966). Potassium potential of some selected soils. Can. J. Soil Sci. 46, 177–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allison, L. E. (1965). Organic carbon. In Methods of Soil Analysis, part 2. Ed. Black, C. A.. Am. Soc. Agron. Monogr. no. 9, pp. 1367–78.Google Scholar
Arnold, P. W. & Close, B. M. (1961). Release of nonexchangeable potassium from some British soils cropped in the glasshouse. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 57, 295–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arnold, P. W., Tunney, H. & Hunter, F. (1968). Potassium status: soil measurements and crop performance. Trans. Qth Int. Congr. Soil Sci., Adelaide 2, 613–20.Google Scholar
Barrow, N. J. (1966). Nutrient potential and capacity. II. Relationship between potassium potential and buffering capacity and the supply of potassium to plants. Aust. J. agric. Res. 17, 849–61.Google Scholar
Beckett, P. H. T. (1964). Studies on soil potassium. II. The immediate Q/I relations of labile potassium in soils. J. Soil Sci. 15, 9–23.Google Scholar
David, D. J. (1960). The determination of exchangeable sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium in soils by atomic-absorption spectrophometry. Analyst, Lond. 85. 495–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Day, P. R. (1965). Particle fractionation and particlesize analysis. In Methods of Soil Analysis, part 1. Ed. Black, C. A.. Am. Soc. Agron. Monogr. no. 9, pp. 545–67.Google Scholar
Friis-Nielsen, B. (1966). An approach towards interpreting and controlling the nutrient status of growing plants by means of chemical plant analysis. PI. Soil 24, 63–80.Google Scholar
Hovland, D. & Caldwell, A. C. (1960). Potassium and magnesium relationships in soils and plants. Soil Sci. 89, 92–6.Google Scholar
Kemp, A. (1960). Hypomagnesaemia in milking cows: the response of serum magnesium to alterations in herbage composition resulting from potash and nitrogen dressings on pasture. Neth. J. agric. Sci. 8, 281–304.Google Scholar
McAllisteb, J. S. V. & McConaghy, S. (1968). Soils of Northern Ireland and their significance upon agriculture. Rec. agric. Res. Minist. Agric. Nth. Ire. 17, 101–8.Google Scholar
McConaohy, S. & McAleese, D. M. (1957). Studies on the basaltic soils of Northern Ireland. I. Cation exchange properties. J. Soil Sci. 8, 127–34.Google Scholar
McConaghy, S. & McAllister, J. S. V. (1967). The determination in soils of potassium and magnesium and their uptake by crops. Tech. Bull. Minist. Agric. Fish. Fd, no. 14, pp. 63–77.Google Scholar
McConaghy, S. & Smillie, G. (1965). Soil potassium and its availability to crops. I. Uptake of potassium by ryegrass in relation to soil potassium potential. Rec. agric. Res. Minist. Agric. Nth. Ire. 14, 79—94.Google Scholar
McNaught, K. J. (1970). Diagnosis of mineral deficiencies in grass—legume pastures by plant analysis. Proc. 11th Int. Qrassld Congr., pp. 334–8.Google Scholar
Salmon, R. C. (1963). Magnesium relationships in soils and plants. J. Sci. Fd Agric. 14, 605–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Salmon, R. C. (1964). Cation-activity ratios in equilibrium soil solutions and the availability of magnesium. Soil Sci. 98, 213–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schachtschabel, P. (1954). Das pflanzenverfiigbare magnesium des boden und seine bestimmung. Z. PflErnähr. Bung. Bodenk. 67, 9–23.Google Scholar
Talibudeen, O. & Dey, S. K. (1968). Potassium reserves in British soils. II. Soils from different parent materials. J. agric. Sci., Camb. 71, 405–11.Google Scholar