Effectiveness of Three Organic Acids on Phosphorus Solubilization in Some Acid Soils of Eastern India

ABSTRACT

Acid soils (0-20 cm) from five different locations namely Jibanpur, Kamalpur, Washabarie, Hansqua (from the state of West Bengal) and Padu (Meghalaya) were collected to evaluate the efficiency of organic acids in dissolving phosphorus which was conducted in the laboratory. The extracted P by different organic acids varied from soil to soil and least was in the soil of Padu followed by Jibanpur. These two soils are collected from bare land having low P content. Citric acid is most effective in releasing inorganic P in these soils. On the other hand, the other three soils, were known to have fertilized regularly over 100 years under tea plantation and thus bearing high amount of total P, extracted higher amount P with oxalic acid at comparable level of acid addition. The time-depended P release data were fitted to different models and the data were better model by Elovich and Power functional equations based on the values of the coefficient of determination (r²) and the standard errors of the estimates (S.E). The dissolution and complexation of the Fe³⁺/Al³⁺or Ca²⁺compounds that bind most P in soils may be the possible mechanisms for its release by low molecular weight organic acids according to the well fitted Elovich and Power function models in kinetic experiment.

KEYWORDS:

• Acid soil
• inorganic P
• kinetic experiment
• organic acid

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author’s contributions

All authors contributed significantly toward the final make up of the manuscript. Expressing in terms of author initials, Arup Sen, Sankhadip Banerjee and Sumana Balo conceived the idea of the experiment, exercised the statistical analysis and created the original draft; Ratneswar Poddar proof read the material, edited and compiled the final manuscript.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.