Determining critical soil pH for phosphorus uptake efficiency in an acidic Ultisol for maize

Baquy, M. Abdulaha-Al; Li, Jiu-yu; Nkoh, Jackson Nkoh; Biswash, Md. Romel; Xu, Ren-Kou

doi:10.21608/ejss.2024.308115.1827

Determining critical soil pH for phosphorus uptake efficiency in an acidic Ultisol for maize

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, 5200, Bangladesh

² State Key Laboratory of Soil and Sustainable Agriculture, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 821, Nanjing, China

³ Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresource and Eco-Environmental Science, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory for Plant Epigenetics, College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China

10.21608/ejss.2024.308115.1827

Abstract

The scarcity of phosphorus (P) restricts crop growth due to reduced P uptake in acidic soil. Due to significant variations in soil pH in acidic Ultisol, it is still unclear how such variations would affect P uptake efficiency by maize plants. Thus, under different pH (3.75, 4.0, 4.5, 5.0 and 5.5) conditions, this study investigated the growth and P uptake efficiency during the growth of maize plants as influenced by the distribution of P species in Ultisols. Our results showed that increased soil acidity had a negative impact on plant height, dry matter yield (shoots and roots biomass), and chlorophyll content of maize plants. Also, the P uptake efficiency increased with decreased soil acidity, and the critical value for P uptake efficiency was pH 5.00. Generally, as soil pH was increased, soil available P decreased significantly and was consistent with higher uptake of available P by the plant and variations in different P species including those bound to iron, aluminum, and calcium.

Keywords