Interrelationships Between Soil Quality Parameters and Wheat Productivity for Some Soils of Monufyia Governorate

Abstract

The present study was carried out to investigate the interrelationships between some physical and chemical soil characteristics and wheat productivity at seven locations; El-Sadat area, Monufyia Governorate during 2013/2015 years. Eight surface soil samples (0-30 cm) from each location were correlated for the investigated soil parameters determination. The investigated parameters were the coarse sand (CS), fine sand, silt and clay content, bulk density (BD), real density (RD), total porosity (TP), quickly drainable pores (QDP), slowly drainable pores (SDP), water holding capacity (WHC), hydraulic conductivity (HC), field capacity (F. C), wilting coefficient (WC); mean weight diameter (MWD); pH, electric conductivity (EC), organic matter (OM), cation exchange capacity (CEC), calcium carbonate (CaCO3), available potassium (Av-K) and total nitrogen (TN). The results showed a high significant correlation (P < 0.05) between some physical and chemical soil quality parameters. The observed a positive significant correlation was: WHC (water holding capacity), F. C (field capacity), pH and CEC (cation exchange capacity) correlated with clay content. QDP (quickly drainable pores) correlated with fine sand content. TP (total porosity), F. C, RD (real density), and WC (wilting coefficient) correlated with (HC) hydraulic conductivity. Also, the observed that a negative significant correlation was: OM (organic matter), WHC, clay content, RD and silt correlated with fine sand content. QDP (quickly drainable pores) correlated with water holding capacity and clay content Bulk density correlated with the hydraulic conductivity, total porosity and silt. The highest values of mean, standard deviation and the relative weight of physical and chemical parameters were obtained for cation exchange capacity, clay content, fine sand content, silt content, quickly drainable pores, field capacity and water holding capacity compared with the other soil parameters. Concerning the relationship of some soil parameters and wheat productivity, the data of correlation studies showed that the most suitable parameters for evaluation of soil quality under different soil management of study area were CEC, clay content, fine sand content, silt content, QDP, FC and WHC. On the other hand, the data showed an insignificant correlation between wheat productivity and some physical and chemical parameters such as coarse sand, slowly drainable pores, pH, CaCO3 and total nitrogen.