Forms and Dynamics of Soil Potassium in Acid Soil in the Wolaita Zone of Southern Ethiopia

Mesfin Kassa, Fassil Kebede, Wassie Haile, Francesco De Mastro
2021 Applied and Environmental Soil Science  
Quantity-intensity (Q/I) characteristics are among conventional approaches for studying potassium dynamics and its availability. This was assessed to determine availability in four districts: namely, Sodo Zuria, Damot Gale, Damot Sore, and Boloso Sore, at three different land use systems (enset-coffee, crop land, and grazing land). Fractionation and dynamics of K sources were studied in soil samples, which were collected from 0–20 cm depth of each land system. The study revealed that water
more » ... ctable K (H2O-K) concentrations ranged from 0.13 to 0.34 cmolc kg−1 soils at enset-coffee and grazing land use systems, respectively, and had a mean value of 0.28 cmolc kg−1 soils ammonium acetate extractable (NH4OAC-K) and nitric acid extract (HNO3-K) had a mean value of 0.25 cmolc kg−1 soils. In this study, the means of nonexchangeable- and exchangeable-K concentrations were of 0.11 and 0.14 cmolc kg−1 soils for land use types. Significant correlations were found between soil properties and Q/I parameters and among equilibrium solution parameters and Q/I parameters. There was no significant variation among the mean quantity values of the soils. The soils had higher change in exchangeable-K and potential buffering capacity than the enset-coffee land use soils, and the cop land had the highest values for these parameters. However, the enset-coffee land use soils had higher K-intensity. Therefore, application of site specific soil fertility management practices and research can improve soil K status and Q/I parameters to sustain productivity soils.
doi:10.1155/2021/9917316 fatcat:ypnfomb5ljbtxgff7aocnxcrj4