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Distribution of Total and Available Sulfur in Selected Soils and Soil Profiles 1
Author(s) -
Tabatabai M. A.,
Bremner J. M.
Publication year - 1972
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1972.00021962006400010013x
Subject(s) - soil water , sulfate , sulfur , chemistry , environmental chemistry , human fertilization , soil test , crop , zoology , agronomy , environmental science , soil science , biology , organic chemistry
Sulfur deficiencies have been detected in several regions of the United States during the past decade, and sulfur fertilization is now required in many areas to ensure satisfactory crop production. The purpose of the work reported was to assess the sulfur status of Iowa soils and obtain information required for evaluation of the need for sulfur fertilization. Analysis of 64 surface soils representing the major soil series in Iowa indicated that 95‐98% of the total S in iowa surface soils is organic S. The total S contents of the soils analyzed ranged from 57 to 618 ppm (average, 294 ppm), and the sulfate‐S contents ranged from 1 to 26 ppm (average, 9 ppm). Studies with selected soils showed that they did not contain significant amounts of adsorbed sulfate S or mineralizable S and had little, if any, capacity to adsorb sulfate. Total S was significantly correlated with organic C (r = 0.85 ** ) and with total N (r = 0.90 ** ), and sulfate S was significantly correlated with total S (r = 0.57 ** ). Mineralizable S was not significantly correlated with total S, sulfate S, organic C, total N, mineralizable N, or arylsulfatase activity. Analysis of profile samples of representative Iowa soils showed that total S decreased markedly with increase in sample depth and that subsurface samples usually contained less sulfate S than did surface samples. The data reported indicate that Iowa soils have low reserves of plant‐available S