STATUS OF SOME MICRONUTRIENTS IN SOME SOILS OF EGYPT

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out to study and evaluate the status of Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu in some soils of Egypt: a) Calcareous and alluvial soils. The different fractions of soil extractable Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu were also determined using five methods commonly in use to extract soil Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu. The work also, included a green-house experiment using barley plants were used as an indicator plant to evaluate the efficiency of each of the different extracting agents of soil Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu as a reliable parameter of their availability. Simple correlations were calculated between the various figures of Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu extracted by the different extracting solutions and the corresponding value of their uptake by barley plant and hence to recommend the most efficient method to determine Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu availability in the soils under consideration. The obtained results can briefly summarized as follows: •

1- Chemical properties:

1.1. Total salinity and soluble salts:

The electrical conductivity (ECe) values varied from 0.55-

60.57 dS m•1

Soluble Ca is dominant in the calcareous soils in Bahig (Sites Nos. 7 and 8) and EI-Hammam (Sites Nos. 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14), while soluble sodium is the dominant in Tamia (Sites Nos. 18 and 19), Com-Oshim (Site No. 20), Soluble Mg is dominant in Borg EI-Arab (Sites Nos. 3 and 4).