Abstract
Key Message
The acceleration of K release in the eucalyptus rhizosphere is a key process for explaining plant K uptake in low-K tropical soils.
Abstract
We conducted a pot experiment to evaluate the short-term dynamics of soil K at the soil-root interface of eucalyptus plants. We hypothesized that eucalyptus roots are able to substantially modify the soil K supply by releasing K from more recalcitrant K pools. To test our hypothesis, we used five tropical Oxisols in which the remaining structural K forms were components of highly weathering-resistant minerals. The experiment was installed in a split-plot arrangement of treatments in a randomized block design with four replicates. The effect of the soils was studied in the main plots. In the subplots, we isolated or did not isolate eucalyptus roots from the soil. At the end of the experiment, we determined the total soil K, exchangeable K, and K extracted with Mehlich 1 (M1) and Mehlich 3 (M3) as well as the K content in plant shoots. Our main findings suggest that the acceleration of K release in the eucalyptus rhizosphere is a key process for explaining plant K uptake in low-K tropical soils. Understanding and quantifying the processes related to this phenomenon are necessary to provide a more mechanistic basis for K fertilization recommendations as well as to monitor the sustainability of natural and planted eucalypt forests
References
Bouillet JP, Laclau JP, Gonçalves JLM et al (2008) Mixed-species plantations of Acacia mangium and Eucalyptus grandis in Brazil 2: nitrogen accumulation in the stands and biological N2 fixation. For Ecol Manage 255:3918–3930. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2007.10.050
Firmano RF, Melo VF, Montes CR et al (2020) Potassium reserves in clay fraction of a tropical soil fertilized for tree decades. Clays Clay Miner 68:237–249. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42860-020-00078-6
Ganeshamurthy AN, Brswas CR (1985) Contribution of potassium from non-exchangeable sources in soil to crops. J Indian Soc Soil Sci 33:60–66
Jérémie B, Arnaud L, Laurent S-A et al (2020) Conventional analysis methods underestimate the plant-available pools of calcium, magnesium and potassium in forest soils. Sci Rep 10:15703. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72741-w
Kraffczyk I, Trolldenier G, Beringer H (1984) Soluble root exudates of maize: Influence of potassium supply and rhizosphere microorganisms. Soil Biol Biochem 16:315–322. https://doi.org/10.1016/0038-0717(84)90025-7
Lana MC, Neves JCL (1994) Capacidade de suprimento de potássio em solos sob reflorestamento com eucalipto do estado de São Paulo. Rev Árvore 18:115–122
Leite FP, Silva IR, Novais RF et al (2010) Alterations of soil chemical properties by Eucalyptus cultivation in five regions in the Rio Doce Valley. Rev Bras Ciência Do Solo 34:821–831. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0100-06832010000300024
Mateus NDS, Ferreira EVDO, Junior JCA et al (2019) Plant Physiology and biochemistry the ideal percentage of K substitution by Na in Eucalyptus seedlings: evidences from leaf carbon isotopic composition, leaf gas exchanges and plant growth. Plant Physiol Biochem 137:102–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plaphy.2019.02.006
Melo VDF, de Barros NF, Da CLM et al (1995a) Formas de potássio e de magnésio em solos do Rio Grande do Sul, e sua relação com o conteúdo na planta e com a produção em plantios de eucalipto. Rev Bras Cienc Do Solo 19:165–171
Melo VDF, Cruz CD, De BNF et al (1995b) Balanço nutricional, eficiencia de utilizaçao e avaliação da fertilidade do solo em P, K, Ca e Mg em plantios de eucalipto no Rio Grande do Sul. Ipef 48(49):8–17
Oliveira FB, Carneiro SH, Souza NF et al (2018) Predicting potassium avaibility for Eupalyptus in tropical soils (poster presentation). In: 21st World Congress of Soil Science. Rio de Janeiro
R Core Team (2020) R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for statistical computing, Vienna, Austria. Available at https://www.R-project.org/
Rosolem CA, Steiner F (2017) Effects of soil texture and rates of K input on potassium balance in tropical soil. Eur J Soil Sci 68:658–666. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.12460
dos Santos MA, Valadares RV, Neves JCL et al (2020) Ammonium nitrogen increases Ca uptake from non-exchangeable reservoirs by eucalypt plants. For Ecol Manage 465:118062. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2020.118062
Shaikh K, Memon KS, Memon M, Akhtar MS (2007) Changes in mineral composition and bioavailable potassium under long-term fertilizer use in cotton-wheat system. Soil Environ 26:1–9
Sheng XF, He LY (2006) Solubilization of potassium-bearing minerals by a wild-type strain of Bacillus edaphicus and its mutants and increased potassium uptake by wheat. Can J Microbiol 52:66–72. https://doi.org/10.1139/w05-117
da Silva PHM, Poggiani F, Libardi PL, Gonçalves AN (2012) Fertilizer management of eucalypt plantations on sandy soil in Brazil : Initial growth and nutrient cycling. For Ecol Manage. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2012.10.033
Sparks DL (1987) Potassium dynamics in soils. Adv Soil Sci 6:1–63. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4682-4_1
Sparks DL, Huang PM (1985) Physical Chemistry of soil potassium. In: Munson RD (ed) Potassium in agriculture, pp 201–265
Tantriani ST, Cheng W et al (2020) Metabolomic analysis of night-released soybean root exudates under high- and low-K conditions. Plant Soil 456:259–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-020-04715-w
Trehan SP, El Dessougi H, Claassen N (2005) Potassium efficiency of 10 potato cultivars as related to their capability to use nonexchangeable soil potassium by chemical mobilization. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 36:1809–1822. https://doi.org/10.1081/CSS-200062457
Xue X, Zhang L, Peng Y et al (2019) Effects of mineral structure and microenvironment on K release from Potassium aluminosilicate minerals by Cenococcum geophilum fr. Geomicrobiol J 36:11–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01490451.2018.1485064
Yadav BK, Sidhu AS (2016) Dynamics of potassium and their bioavailability for plant nutrition. In: Potassium solubilizing microorganisms for sustainable agriculture, pp 187–201
Acknowledgements
This study was financed in part by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior—Brasil (CAPES)—Finance Code 001.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
FBO and SHC: experiment conduction; data collection; data analysis and writing. NFS and BMH: writing—review editing. IRS: experiment planning and reading the final draft. MPFF: writing—review editing. SVV: experiment planning, guidance for data collection and analysis, writing—review.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest
The authors declare no conflict/competing interests.
Additional information
Communicated by Pierre Emmanuel Courty.
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
de Oliveira, F.B., Carneiro, S.H., de Souza, N.F. et al. Soil potassium dynamics in the eucalypt rhizosphere. Trees 35, 1411–1415 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-021-02153-4
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-021-02153-4