Sulphate Releasing Pattern of Soils under Acidic Conditions of Forest Soils of Nagaland

Abstract

A research investigation was undertaken to study the sulphate releasing pattern of forest soils under acidic conditions covering three districts of Nagaland during 2014. The investigation results revealed that the amount of SO42--S released was highest in the first extraction followed gradual decrease till the seventh extraction after which no sulphate was detected from the samples by the three extractant used. The average total amount of SO42--S released by CaCl2, KCl and KH2PO4 was 27.73 g-1, 28.33 g-1 and 32.17 g-1 respectively. The amount of SO42--S released was highest using KH2PO4 compared to CaCl2 and KCl extractant. KH2PO4 extractant has higher sulphate releasing power than CaCl2 and KCl due to higher sulphate releasing power of phosphate than the chloride. The total CaCl2 extractable SO42-S shows negative correlation with available K (-0.600*).