Soil-root interactions in potassium supply

Abstract

Potassium uptake is the result of numerous simultaneous processes influencing the potassium dynamics in the rhizosphere.The presented research has focused on plant-soil interactions in the potassium supply of soil in the root environment of maize. It was assumed that: 1. roots promote the mobilization of K by the acidification of the rhizosphere soil, 2. roots increase wetting-drying cycles in their environment, and 3. soil total K content affects K release and fixation in the bulk of soil and the root environment.The promoting effect of root activity was detected on K release from soil when feldspar was added as K source to the root environment. A 2-unit reduction of soil pH multiplied K concentration in the soil solution, depending on the feldspar rate. Feldspar application significantly increased the solubility and release of potassium into the soil solution.The effect of pH reduction on the K concentration of soil solution was several magnitudes higher than that of the wetting-drying cycles both in the untreated and feldspar treated soils.Potassium uptake by maize over two generations greatly exceeded the exchangeable pool in the growing media. As a consequence of the exhaustive K uptake K release slowed down to the soil solution, as reflected in the H2O extractable K and ExK contents.Significant K fixation was detected after the K removal of maize in feldspar treated soils. On the contrary, in the treatments without plants increasing feldspar rates increased both H2O extractable K and ExK contents.One-term Langmuir equation, corrected with the originally sorbed amount of K, was fitted to measured data. The maximum amount of potassium adsorption (Kmax, mg∙kg−1) and the equilibrium constant (k) were calculated. The potassium buffering capacity was estimated at zero equilibrium concentration. Both K buffering capacity and the energy of K fixation were high for the rhizosphere soil. In rhizosphere soil samples the energy of K fixation was one magnitude higher as compared to the bulk soil and decreased substantially with feldspar addition. In soils without plants the k equilibrium constant did not change as the result of drying-wetting process only in the case of the 50% soil/feldspar mixture.In the liquid phase of the soil without feldspar application potassium concentration decreased in the one-year drying-wetting cycle, presumably it got into more strongly bounded forms in the low K status soil. In 50% feldspar enriched soil samples potassium concentration in the soil solution increased, likely as a consequence of a slow dissolution of the K content of feldspar.