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Fixation and Recovery of Phosphate from Some Lateritic Soils
Author(s) -
Moser Frank
Publication year - 1942
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1942.036159950006000c0058x
Subject(s) - citation , fixation (population genetics) , potash , computer science , library science , agronomy , sociology , fertilizer , biology , demography , population
FRANK MosER THE native phosphorus content for the majority of the Piedmont and Coastal Plain soils is low and phosphate fertilizers are required to supply sufficient phosphorus for crop production. Annual applications of superphosphate to these soils have had little influence upon the amount of soluble phosphate. Much of the phosphate added was undoubtedly fixed by the soil, as crop removal and erosion losses would not account for the difference in the total amount added and the available phosphates present. These lateritic soils have a halloysitic type of a colloidal complex and their high content of aluminum and iron, together with a corresponding lack of bases, causes a relatively high fixation of phosphorus. The mechanism for phosphate fixation has been studied by numerous investigators. The literature on this subject is voluminous. However, the consensus of opinion is that in acid soils fixation is a resultant from adsorption by the clay particle, from the formation of a silico-phospho-aluminum complex, and from crystalline iron-aluminum hydrates where the PC>4 ion replaces the OH ion within the crystal lattice; whereas in alkaline soils fixation is the result of phosphorus precipitation as divalent bases. Such possible explanations for phosphorus fixation were suggested by the investigations of Davis (3), Scarseth (15), Ford (4), Roszmann (14), Stout (17), and McGeorge (10). No attempt has been made to develop further the fixation mechanism, but in this study the rate of fixation of soluble phosphates, the effect of the higher phosphate levels on growth, and the recovery of soil phosphates by plant and laboratory methods were determined.