STUDIES ON THE STATUS OF SOME MICRONUTRIENTS IN SOILS OF KALUBJA GOVERNORATE

Abstract

The current work aims at gaining more information about the total and available amounts of micronutrients; Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu in the soils of Kalubia Governorate. To fulfill these purposes, sixty-two soil samples (0-15 and 15-30 em) were taken from 31 locations representing soils of Kalubia Governorate. Micronutrients fractions were also extracted to study their relationships in the investigated soils with some chemical and physical properties. A Neubauer pot experiment was conducting using barley as a test plant to study the biological availability of the tested micronutrients in soil.

The results obtained could be summarized as follows:

I. Iron:

1- Total iron content values in the tested soils are varying from 0.32 to

6.68% in the upper soil layer and from 1.01 to 6.97% in the subsurface soil layer. The highest value is found in Meet EI-Attar soil and the lowest value is found in EI-Gabal EI-Asfar soil.

2- AB-DTPA extractable Fe ranges from 1.96 to 75.28 mg kg-1 in the upper soil layer and from 1.58 to 30.4 mg kg-1 in the (15-30 em) soil depth. The lowest value is found in Meet EI-Howfine soil and the highest one in EI-Gabal EI-Asfar soil in upper soil layer, while in subsurface soil layer, the lowest value is found in Broshem EI-Kubra and the highest value is found in EI-Gabal EI-Asfar soil.

3- Concerning Fe fractions in some tested soils, values of soluble and exchangeable Fe are ranging from 1.0 to 8.8 mg kg-1. Iron bound by