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The rôle of aluminium in soil infertility and toxicity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 March 2009

F. Hardy
F. Hardy
Affiliation:
(Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture, Trinidad, British West Indies.)
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Extract

1. The main results of soil investigations on the rôle of aluminium in soil infertility are reviewed, with particular regard to the physicochemical principles involved.

2. Magistad's conclusion that soils or other nutrient media whose reaction values lie within the range pH 4·7 and pH 8·5 do not contain aluminium in soluble form, and are probably therefore not toxic to plants, is discussed in the light of modern knowledge of the properties of hydrous alumina and its peptisation phenomena.

3. Dialysis experiments which have led to this generalisation are criticised on the grounds that they do not take into account the disturbing effect of dialysis on hydrous colloidal systems, and that dialyser membranes do not simulate plant-cell membranes.

4. Aluminium may possibly penetrate plant-root cells, and, under certain conditions, may be translocated, within the plant body, in at least four different forms, namely, (a) simple ions, (b) more complex colloidal electrolytes, (c) co-ordinated complex anions, and (d) organo-compounds. These may conceivably be interconvertible.

5. Aluminium appears to exert true toxic effect only when presented to plant roots as simple ions, or as the more soluble colloidal electrolytes. Apparently, the degree of toxicity varies for different plant species.

6. The reaction conditions of nutrient media and of plant saps doubtless largely decide the form in which aluminium occurs therein. At reactions approaching the isoelectric point of hydrous alumina, toxic effects may never be exerted, although the assignation of a strict reaction-range applicable to all soils or nutrient media, and to all plant species, is probably inadmissible.

7. Non-toxic forms of aluminium may apparently accumulate under certain conditions at definite tissue regions of certain plants, and may disturb their metabolic processes, disposing the plants to certain diseases.

8. Within the reaction-range at which toxic aluminous solutes cannot exist in soils or other culture media, hydrogen-ions may exert controlling influence on plant growth, and may thus be of major significance in natural plant distribution, and in the behaviour of plants growing in normal agricultural soils.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , October 1926 , pp. 616 - 631
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1926

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