24-Mar-20

Basic Soil-Plant Relationships

1
 24-Mar-20

• Interaction of soil physical, chemical and biological properties

controls plant nutrient availability.
• Nutrient supply/availability to plant roots is a very “dynamic”
process.
• The absorption of nutrients from soil solution is actually a
process of ion exchange.
• All aqueous solutions must remain electrically neutral.
• If there is an imbalance of cations vs. anions, then the balance
may be restored by release of cation or anion by plant root
cells.

Reactions to resupply nutrients in soil solution

2
 24-Mar-20

Ion Exchange in Soils

• Cation and anion exchange occurs on the surface of clay,
organic matter and roots.
• Ion exchange is a reversible process.
• Cation exchange is more important the anion exchange
because CEC is much greater than AEC in most agricultural
soils.
• But why is CEC > AEC?
• Hint: Composition of Soil……

Source of –ve Charge

• Permanent Charge:
• The –ve charge associated with isomorphic substitution is
distributed uniformly across the surface of clay
• Temporary charge: (also known as pH dependent charge)
• At low pH the +ve charge on clay is because of excess of H+ ions
associated with exposed Si-OH and Al-OH groups.
• As soil pH increases the H+ becomes neutralized and edge charge
becomes more –ve.
• Only 5-10% of –ve charge on 2:1 clay minerals e.g. vermiculite,
montmorillonite
• >50% of charge developed on 1:1 (e.g. Kaolinite) is pH dependent

3
 24-Mar-20

Soil organic matter

CEC arises as a result of H+ being dissociated from carboxylic,
phynolic, and other hydroxyl groups.

pH dependent charge related to CEC from organic matter and

broken edges of clays.

CEC and AEC

4
 24-Mar-20

Ion Exchange on Soil Exchange Surface

• Most of the exchangeable cations are plant nutrients except
Na and Al.
• In acidic soils the dominant cations are:
• Al+3, H+, Ca+2, Mg+2 and K+
• In Alkaline and neutral soils the dominant cations are:
• Na+, Ca+2, Mg+ and K+

• Cations are adsorbed to the exchange sites with different

strengths, hence influencing the ease of replacement of
cations:
• For mineral soils the strength of cations adsorption is:
Al+3 > H+ > Ca+2 > Mg+2 > K+ = NH4+ > Na+
• This is also known as……………..
Lyotropic series
• The strength of adsorption is directly proportional to the
charge on cations. Exception is for H+ because:
• Small size
• High charge density
• Secondly, strength of adsorption for similar charge cations is
determined by size/radii of hydrated cation.

10

5
 24-Mar-20

Base Saturation
• It is an important soil property.
• BS is defined as the percentage of CEC occupied by Ca, Mg, K
and Na
• Soils with higher BS will have higher availability of Ca, Mg and
K
• Base saturation is generally higher for uncultivated arid soils
compared to humid soils.
• Base saturation of soils formed from limestone or basic
igneous rocks is higher.
What would be the effect of pH on BS……?

11

Anion Exchange
• Anions is soil are adsorbed on the +ve charged sites in soil.
• AEC increases with decrease in soil pH.
• The order of anion adsorption sterngh is:

H2PO4- > SO4-2 > NO3- > Cl-

12

6
 24-Mar-20

Absorption of ions by roots

• Plants absorb essential elements, usually in ionic form,
from the soil solution.
• As ions are depleted in the soil solution, chemical and
biological reactions occur that replenish the ions that
were absorbed.

13

Root Cation Exchange Capacity

• Monocots (grasses) have root CEC range of 10 – 30 meq/100g
• Dicots (broad leave, legumes) have root CEC range of 40 – 100
meq/100g
• Exchange properties of roots is attributed mainly to carboxyl
group (-COOH), similar to humus. Accounting for 70-90% of
root CEC.
• Legumes and plant species with high root CEC have higher
preference for divalent cations compared to monovalent
cations.
• The preference is reverse for grasses

14

7
 24-Mar-20

Buffering Capacity
• Plant nutrient availability depends upon the concentration of
nutrients in solution, but more importantly on the capacity of
soil to maintain nutrients in solution.
• BC represents the ability of soil to resupply nutrient ions to
the soil solution
• Soil BC can be described the ration of concentration of
adsorbed (∆Q) and solution (∆ I) ions.
• Soil BC increases with increase in CEC and OM

15

16

8
 24-Mar-20

Mineral Solubility in Soils

• Solubility of soil mineral refers to the concentration of the
elements/ions in solution supported/maintained by a specific
mineral.
• E.g. when gypsum is added to water, it dissolves

CaSO4 2H2O ------ Ca + SO4 + 2H2O

• The product of the two ions Ca2+ and SO42- concentration is

known as “solubility product” or Ksp, where:

Ksp = (Ca+2)(SO4-2)

• Ksp is a constant. But what does this mean…….?

17

It means that……………….
• If the concentration of the ion is less than Ksp then the
mineral will dissolve and when the concentration of the ion is
>Ksp then the mineral shall precipitate.
• When a mineral (e.g. CaSO4) is added to water/soil solution, it
begins to dissolve and reaction moves towards the right, but
as more CaSO4 dissolves, the backward reaction will start to
occur until equilibrium is established between “dissolution”
and “precipitation”.
• The direction of reaction may change by irrigation and
evaporation….

18

9
 24-Mar-20

19

CEC
• Most soils have a net negative charge because of the
negative charges on layer silicates and organic matter

20

10
 24-Mar-20

1:1 clays
• Ion exchange in soils
• Cation exchange
• 1:1 layered alumino silicates (clays), Kaolinite

pH dependent charge

21

2:1 clays
• Idealized end members, in the spectrum of possible
isomorphic substitutions, are clays without isomorphic
substitution
• pyrophyllite, a dioctahedral mineral (all cations in the
octahedral layer are Al 3+ , which occupy 2/3 of the “spaces” in
the layer
• talc, a trioctahedral mineral (all cations in the octahedral layer
are Mg 2+ , which occupy 3/3 of the “spaces” in the layer)

illite: derived from the dioctahedral mineral muscovite where the

octahedral layer is occupied by Al 3+ , and the trioctahedral
mineral biotite, where Mg 2+ and Fe 2+ occupy the octahedral
positions instead of Al 3+ . Negative charge (CEC) arises from
substitution of Al 3+ for Si 4+ in the silicon tetrahedral layer. K + is
similar in size to the “holes” in the base of the tetrahedral layer
and becomes “fixed” between crystal lattices in the mineral.
These minerals are a rich source of K.
• montmorillonite: Like pyrophyllite except that Mg 2+ has substituted
for some of the Al 3+ in octahedral layer and accounts for high CEC.

22

11
 24-Mar-20

Anion exchange
• Some highly weathered soils dominated by allophane
and hydrous oxides may have a net positive charge at
low pH (Anion Exchange Capacity)

• Strength of anion adsorption is: HPO42- > SO42- > NO3- = Cl-
• Important for phosphates and sulfates.
• Chlorides and nitrates are too weakly adsorbed to
significantly compete with phosphates and sulfates.
• Most important in highly weathered, acid soils (tropics).

23

Movement of ions from soil to

roots
1. Contact exchange or root interception
• roots have CEC which interacts with soil CEC

Overlapping oscillation volumes of ions

allows for ions to exchange places on sites
of adsorption

24

12
 24-Mar-20

Ion Movement
2. Diffusion
• Accounts for the majority of P and K movement from soil
solution to root surface
• Concentration gradient is driving force
• Effective in ion movement over short distances (e.g. P
0.02 cm; K 0.2 cm)
3. Mass flow
• water movement in response to transpiration,
evaporation, and rainfall (irrigation) are driving forces.
• Most important for ions in relative abundance in the soil
solution (Ca, Mg, and NO3-N

25

• Plant uptake of nutrients

• Passive uptake
• Nutrients moved from high concentration in the soil solution to lower
concentration in the apparent free space (between cell in the cortex or
outer layer of cells) by diffusion and ion exchange (cells have an internal
negative charge). Indiscriminate & does not require expenditure of
plant energy. The process occurs outside the Casparian strip and
plasmalemma that are barriers to diffusion and ion exchange.
• Active uptake
• Nutrients are moved against a concentration gradient across the
plasmalemma by a carrier mechanism. The process requires
expenditure of plant energy.

26

13