Effect of pH, Carbonate and Clay Content on Magnesium Measurement Methods on Hungarian Soils

Abstract

More exact information on soil nutrient management is crucial due to environmental protection, nature conservation, decreasing sources for mining, general precaution, etc. Soil magnesium (Mg) analytical methods of potassium chloride (KCl), Mehlich 3 (M3), water (WA) and cobalt hexamine (CoHex) extractions are compared with an elemental analysis and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis. The ratio of the available to the total Mg content was calculated and compared on the whole dataset. The results showed that the linear regressions between all the pairs of Mg content measurement methods were significant. The linear relationship between the KCl and CoHex methods has the highest determination coefficient (R2 = 0.96), followed by WA–M3 (R2 = 0.68), M3–CoHex (R2 = 0.66) and M3–KCl (R2 = 0.60). The M3 solution demonstrated a greater capacity for extracting Mg from the soil. The second part is the analysis of the influence of CaCO3, pH, soil texture and clay content on the measurable magnesium content of soils. It was established that the extraction methods, the soil and the classification method of the soil properties affect the evaluation. These results may help through the nutrient replenishment and the melioration of soils. These results can help the examination of mineral nutrients, especially the Mg uptake.