Soil Zinc Transformations as Affected by Applied Zinc and Organic Materials

Abstract

Information on soil zinc (Zn) distribution is essential for understanding its chemical reactions and bioavailability. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of wheat straw, cow manure, and vermicompost applied with Zn rates on Zn distribution in a calcareous soil. A sequential extraction scheme was used to fractionate Zn into soluble and exchangeable, bound to carbonate, organically bound, bound to manganese (Mn) oxide, bound to amorphous iron (Fe) oxide, bound to crystalline Fe oxide, and residual forms. In untreated soil, Zn was mainly in the residual fraction. Increasing rates of applied Zn increased all forms of Zn. Carbonate and residual forms showed the greatest increase. Organic materials application increased all fractions, except Mn-oxide form, and this increase was more pronounced for the organically bound form. Concentration of soluble, exchangeable, and organically bound forms was greatest in cow manure–amended samples as compared to other organic materials, suggesting that cow manure contained more bioavailable Zn than other organic materials.

Keywords:

• Calcareous soil
• chemical forms of zinc
• cow manure
• vermicompost
• wheat straw
• zinc sulfate

Acknowledgment

The authors appreciate Shiraz University for providing research facilities.