Development of a New Soil Extractant for Simultaneous Phosphorus, Ammonium, and Nitrate Analysis

Abstract

A new soil extractant (H3A) with the ability to extract NH4, NO3, and P from soil was developed and tested against 32 soils, which varied greatly in clay content, organic carbon (C), and soil pH. The extractant (H3A) eliminates the need for separate phosphorus (P) extractants for acid and calcareous soils and maintains the extract pH, on average, within one unit of the soil pH. The extractant is composed of organic root exudates, lithium citrate, and two synthetic chelators (DTPA, EDTA). The new soil extractant was tested against Mehlich 3, Olsen, and water for extractable P, and 1 M KCl and water‐extractable NH4 and NO2/NO3. The pH of the extractant after adding soil, shaking, and filtration was measured for each soil sample (5 extractants×2 reps×32 soils=320 samples) and was shown to be highly influential on extractable P but has no effect on extractable NH4 or NO2/NO3. H3A was highly correlated with soil‐extractable inorganic N (NH4, NO2/NO3) from both water (r=0.98) and 1 M KCl (r=0.97), as well as being significantly correlated with water (r=0.71), Mehlich 3 (r=0.83), and Olsen (r=0.84) for extractable P.