Article
Assessment of Relationship between Soil pH and Macronutrients, Western Nepal
Journal of Chemical, Biological and Physical Sciences
(2016)
Abstract
Macronutrients are elements required by plants larger amounts. Soil pH is an
important chemical parameter influencing nutrient availability. Considering this factor,
the study was conducted to determine relationship between soil pH and macronutrients
(total nitrogen; available phosphorus; extractable potassium, calcium and magnesium and
available sulphur). The total 172 soil samples were collected from the three sites of
western Nepal at 0-20 cm depth. The collected samples were analyzed by standard
method in Soil Science Division, Khumaltar. To compute the relationship between soil
pH and the macronutrients, simple linear correlation and regression were performed. The
result revealed soil pH was significantly and negatively correlated with total N (r=-
.65**), available P2O5 (r=-.65**), extractable K2O (r=-.16*). While, there was significant
and positive correlation between soil pH and extractable Ca (r=-.79**), extractable Mg
(r=.69**) and available S (r=.38**). In addition, with the increase on soil pH by one
unit, N, P2O5 and K2O decreases by 0.056, 51.86 and 3.90 units, respectively and viceversa.
On the other hand, Ca, Mg and S increased by 382.2, 46.09, 1.2 units, respectively
and vice-versa. Therefore, maintenance of optimum soil pH (neither acidic nor alkaline)
is important for reducing soil macronutrient unavailability problem in western Nepal.
Keywords
- Correlation,
- Macronutrients,
- Regression,
- Soil pH
Disciplines
Publication Date
April 4, 2016
Citation Information
Dinesh Khadka, Sushil Lamichhane and Binita Thapa. "Assessment of Relationship between Soil pH and Macronutrients, Western Nepal" Journal of Chemical, Biological and Physical Sciences Vol. 6 Iss. 3 (2016) p. 303 - 311 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/binita-thapa/8/