Allophanes, a significant soil pool of silicon for plants

Abstract

While in tropical soils recycling of plant phytoliths has been shown to represent a major pool of Si available for plants, the main Si pools available for plants in temperate soils are still poorly constrained. We characterised the various Si pools of temperate forested and cultivated soils in France by selecting seven paired sites (adjacent wheat and forest plots) for four soil groups: Luvisols, Albeluvisols, calcaric and hypereutric Cambisols. We showed that CaCl2-extracted Si (bioavailable) is mostly controlled by pH and allophanes (short-range ordered aluminosilicates) but not by phytoliths. Cultivation, by decreasing the soil organic carbon content increases the allophane content and the SiCaCl2 concentration. Our work highlights the importance of allophanes as the missing link between the soil solution and the clay minerals that could explain the reported correlation between the clay mineral content and bioavailable Si.