RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOIL ACIDIFICATION AND ZINC

FERTILIZATION IN A MODEL EXPERIMENT

Gabriella RÉTHÁTI1 – Ibrahim ISSA2 – László TOLNER1

1 Szent István University, Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Páter Károly Str. 1. 2103

Gödöllő, Hungary, Tel: +36 28 522 000; Fax: +36 28 410 804, E-mail: rethati.gabriella@mkk.szie.hu

2 Sirte University, Sirte, Libya. P. Pox 6742

Zinc is an essential nutrient for living organisms. Mobile zinc ions can be taken up by plants in higher amount than their physiological need and herewith can be available for animals and human beings through food chain.

Zinc has a relatively high affinity for the soil particles, however concentration of free zinc ions can increase due to abrupt and intensive acidification. Our examinations were carried out on goethite as an adsorbent. Goethite plays an important role in ion adsorption in soils. Zinc was chosen for our experiment among those heavy metals which have similar adsorption properties.

Zn is necessary for plant growth, but in higher amount can be toxic. Our results are able to describe the parameters determining the soils Zn supply. However, the interval between the plant growth necessary and toxic amount is very narrow and further examinations are necessary for investigate the exact amount of Zn, which is needed by the plant.