Abstract
The agricultural production in Punjab has increased manifold that aggravated the deficiencies of micronutrients in soils and plants. The availability of soil micronutrients in different soil orders depends upon the soil mineralogy, topography, climatic conditions and cropping sequences. Hence, to study the pedospheric variations of DTPA-extractable micronutrients, viz., zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn) and copper (Cu), in three prominent soil orders of Punjab, a total of 144 depth-wise soil samples were collected from four major land-use systems (cultivated, horticulture, forest and pasture lands). The DTPA extractable micronutrients varied from 1.74–2.81, 1.83–2.82 and 1.81–2.80 for Zn; 5.3–6.8, 5.6–6.9, 4.3–6.3 for Fe; 5.1–7.8, 5.5–7.9, 5.4–7.5 for Mn; and 0.84–1.40, 0.93–1.68, 0.87–1.65 for Cu in soil orders Aridisol, Entisol and Inceptisol, respectively. The average content of DTPA-extractable micronutrients was highest under soil order Entisol followed by Inceptisol and Aridisol. The content of micronutrients showed a declining trend with increase in soil depth in all orders. Among different soil properties, the pH and EC showed significantly negative correlation, however, OC had non-significant correlation with DTPA-extractable micronutrients in soils. Therefore, it is concluded that parent material, land use systems and soil depth affected the distribution of DTPA extractable micronutrients in different soil orders.
Highlights
The distribution of micronutrients is predominantly directed by the variation in topography, climatic conditions and soil development factors and processes that alter and soil pH, organic matter content in soils, complexation with natural organic iations
The results demonstrate that there was variation in soil texture among the soil profiles of different orders, with higher sand (77%) under Aridisol, followed by 61.4 per cent in Entisol and 60.4 per cent in Inceptisol
The results reported that the distribution of diethylene triamine penta acetic acid (DTPA)-Cu showed a decline with increasing depth in the soil profile of different soil orders
Summary
Introduction published maps and institutional affilMicronutrient deficiencies in crops are gaining attention, owing to the adoption of high-yielding varieties, exhaustive cropping, improved crop yield, enhanced usage of high analysis fertilizers and lesser utilization of crop residues, animal manures and composts [1].The deficiency of micronutrients employed a significant setback on the performance of crops in terms of food grain production, showing an impact on the food chain [2].the spatial variability in micronutrient deficiencies is resulting in major nutritional constraints affecting more than 2 billion people on regional and global scales [3].The availability of micronutrients showed a wide range of spatial variability in soils of diverse orders with differentiated soil texture, cropping sequences, geo-morphologies and farming systems [4]. The deficiency of micronutrients employed a significant setback on the performance of crops in terms of food grain production, showing an impact on the food chain [2]. The spatial variability in micronutrient deficiencies is resulting in major nutritional constraints affecting more than 2 billion people on regional and global scales [3]. The availability of micronutrients showed a wide range of spatial variability in soils of diverse orders with differentiated soil texture, cropping sequences, geo-morphologies and farming systems [4]. The distribution of micronutrients is predominantly directed by the variation in topography, climatic conditions and soil development factors and processes that alter and soil pH, organic matter content in soils, complexation with natural organic iations
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