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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Morris, Minnesota » Soil Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #140341
Title: DIFFERENTIATION OF FOUR NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS SOILS USING RESIN EXTRACTION

Author
item Olness, Alan
item WEISER, HAL - USDA-NRCS
item KUNZE, BRUCE - USDA-NRCS
item LIESER, MICHAEL - USDA-NRCS
item Rinke, Jana

Submitted to: Canadian Journal of Soil Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/14/2003
Publication Date: 4/1/2004
Citation: OLNESS, A.E., WEISER, H., KUNZE, B., LIESER, M., RINKE, J.L. DIFFERENTIATION OF FOUR NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS SOILS USING RESIN EXTRACTION. CANADIAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE. 2004. v. 84. P. 31-42.

Interpretive Summary: In order to use soil, fertilizers and plant varieties efficiently, we need to know both the types and amounts of nutrients that the soil will provide. The easily extracted nutrients and toxic elements in four soils in the Northern Great Plains were extracted with ion-exchange resins. This form of extraction is one of the mildest forms of extraction and tends to mimic plant roots. The four soils studied: Barnes, Buse, Langhei and Svea are usually found immediately next to each other in the field. The Barnes and Buse soils occur at the top of the slopes, the Langhei on the side slopes and the Svea soils are found at the bottom of the slopes. Different amounts of several elements were extracted from each soil. The Buse soils had the least amounts of sulfur and this nutrient may be limiting on these soils. The Langhei had the largest amounts of most elements extracted but it also had the most sulfur and boron complexed with other elements and it may benefit from additions of magnesium sulfates and phosphates. Extention service, crop advisors and crop producers can identify the types of fertilizers most likely to give the best crop yields by examining the suite of extracted elements. By knowing the nature of the soil chemistry, they can also identify the best methods of fertilizer placement.

Technical Abstract: Because resin extraction of soils has revealed sensitivities of plants to the extractable V:(V+P) and Mg:(Mg +Ca) molar ratios, we examined the Barnes and Buse soils in the northern Great Plains of North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. Because of their close association with Svea and Langhei soils, these soils were included in the survey. Samples of A or Ap horizons suspended in 20% ethanol were extracted with cation-(Na**+) and anion-(nitrate-N)exchange resin-extractors for a period of five days. After equilibration, extractors were eluted with 1 N HCl and eluates were analyzed using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy. Each soil produced a distinct suite of extractable ions. Mean pH values ranged from about 6.8 for the Svea soil to about 8.0 for the Langhei soils. Total resin extractable Ca ranged from about 150 to 28,000 nmoles g**-1 soil and total resin extractable Mg ranged from 110 to 5,500 nmoles g**-1 soil; the least amounts were found in the Svea soil and the greatest amounts were found in the Langhei soil. The pH of the Barnes and Buse soils and the amounts of extractable Ca and Mg in the Barnes and Buse soils were intermediate to those of the Svea and Langhei soils. Trivial amounts of vanadium were detected in a extracts from a few samples of Buse soils. Large fractions of S, B, and As in the Langhei soil were extracted on cation exchange resins presumably due to complex formation with the much larger amounts of Ca and Mg. Amounts of Ba, Sr, Fe, Co, Cu and Si detected in the extracts differed between soils with more being extracted from the Langhei soils than from the other soils. Only resin-extractable Li and K differed from the general trend in that the amounts associated with Langhei soils were among the least. Detectable amounts of Al, Ni and Zn were usually obtained but without differences between soils. Resin extractable P was correlated with bicarbonate extractable P, but slopes of the regression lines differed between soils and two groups of Barnes soils were clearly distinguished in these relationships.