CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND PEDOGENESIS OF SOILS OF AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE FARM, NAIRA, ANDHRA PRADESH
376 / 148
Authors
-
P. GURUMURTHY
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Agricultural College,Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Naira- 532 185
-
T. SREELATHA
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Agricultural College,Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Naira- 532 185
Keywords:
Elemental composition, Molar ratios, Pedogenesis, Weathering indicesAbstract
The study on elemental composition and pedogenesis of soils of Agricultural College farm, Naira of Srikakulam district was carried-out during 2021. The soils were developed from granite-gneiss parent material. Total silica (SiO2) content of soils ranged from 50.5 to 74.6 percentage. Silica content in general decreased with soil depth, while sesquioxides (R2O3), alumina (Al2O3), iron oxide (Fe2O3), CaO, K2O, Na2O, MnO were found increasing with depth. High silica/ sesquioxide ratio of soils indicated siliceous nature of soils. The aluminum oxide content of the profiles varied from 15.80% to 26.25%. Highest value was reported in lowland profile, whereas, the lowest value was recorded in rainfed upland profile. Iron oxide content varied from 5.04% to 8.50%. Iron oxide content showed slight variation within profiles. Among the other oxides, CaO > MgO > K2O > Na2O was of the order as the soils were developed under semi-arid climate, wherein, basic cations have accumulated in these soil profiles due to limited leaching. The molar concentration of silica (SiO2) ranged from 0.841 to 1.24 moles, and molar concentration of sesquioxide ranged from 0.191 to 0.313 moles. The molar ratio of SiO2 / R2O3 varied from 2.68 to 6.51 in different soil profiles. The SiO2 / Al2O3 ratio varied from 3.33 to 8.02. These wider molar ratios indicated salacious nature of parent material and due to dominance of silica among chemical fractions. Midland (P3) and lowland (P4) soil profiles showed silt/clay ratio of less than 0.45 and upland profiles showed more than 0.45 indicating relatively advanced weathering in mid and lowland profiles while it was moderate weathering in upland profiles. The Weathering Index of Parker (WIP) values of the soils of study area ranged between 2.8 and 32.4. The lower WIP values (2.8 to 8.1) were associated with rainfed uplands and higher values of 14.7- 32.4 with irrigated low lands. The PIA values ranged from 67 to 97 tend to decrease with the depth in all profiles. The profiles examined have the CIA values varied from 66 to 95 indicating high to intense weathering. The CIA values decreased with depth in all the profiles. The surface horizons of P1 and P2 soil profiles were classified as moderately weathered. On the other hand, all subsurface horizons of these two profiles were highly weathered. However, in profiles P3 and P4 the CIA values ranged between 68 to 90 indicating that these soils were highly weathered. CIW values closely followed the trend of CIA values. The bases/R2O3 values of all profiles ranged from 0.061 to 0.608 and found increased with soil depth in all the profiles. Relatively higher values of bases/R2O3 were found in P4 (low lands) indicating base rich character. Middle land and lowland black soil profiles showed silt/clay ratio of less than 0.45 and upland profiles showed morethan 0.45 indicating relatively advanced weathering in mid and lowland profiles while moderate weathering in upland profiles.
References
AIS&LUS. 1970. Soil Survey Manual, All India Soil
and Land Use Survey, IARI, New Delhi. pp.1-
Birkeland, P.W. 1999. Soils and Geomorphology,
Third Edition. New York, Oxford University
Press. pp 430-435.
Dengiz,O Saðlam, M., Özaytekin, H.H and Baskan,
O. 2018. Weathering rates and some
physico-chemical characteristics of soils
developed on a calcic toposequences.
Carpathian Journal of Earth and
Environmental Sciences. 8(2): 13–24.
Dengiz,O and Usul, M. 2017. Multi-criteria
approach in land evaluation studies.
Eurasian Journal of Soil Science. 7(1): 20-
Fedo, C.M., Nesbitt, H.W and Young, G.M. 1995.
Unraveling the effects of potassium
metasomatism in sedimentary rocks and
paleosols with implications for
paleoweathering conditions and provenance.
Geology. 23 (10): 921–924.
Harnois, L. 1988. The CIW index: A new chemical
index of weathering. Sedimentary Geology.
(3-4) : 319-322.
Hesse, P. R. 1971. A Text Book of Soil Chemical
Analysis. John Murry Ltd., London. pp.71-
Himabindu, K 2018. Taxonomic studies of soils of
Thotapalli ayacut area of North coastal
Andhra Pradesh. M.Sc thesis submitted to
Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University,
Guntur.
Himabindu, K and Gurumurthy, P. 2019. Elemental DOI: https://doi.org/10.1287/754bd7b2-131f-44eb-aa89-98b4099a2c0c
composition and molar ratios of soils of
Thotapalli ayacut area of north coastal
Andhra Pradesh. The Journal of Research
ANGRAU. 46(4): 17-24.
ISSS. 2016. Fundamentals of Soil Science. Indian
Society of Soil Science. pp. 209-210.
Jackson, M. L. 1973. Soil Chemical Analysis.
Oxford IBH Publishing Company, Bombay.
pp. 58-75.
Nesbitt, Y.W., Young, G. M. 1982. Early proterozoic
climates and plate motions inferred from
major element chemistry of lutites. Nature.
: 715-717.
Nwokocha, C.C., Akamigbo, F.R. and Chukwu,
G.O. 2003. Characterization and evaluation
of soils of Umuahia locala area of Abia Sate
for agricultural production. In: Ojeniyi et al.,
(Edited), Land degradation, Agricultural
Productivity and Rural Poverty:
Environmental Implications. Proceedings of
the 28th Annual Conference of SSSN 4- 7th
Nov, 2003, Umudike, Nigeria. pp. 308-315.
Ozaytekin, H.H., Mutlu, H.H and Dedeoglu, M.
Soil formation on a calcic
chronosequence of ancient Lake Konya in
Central Anatolia, Turkey. Journal of African
Earth Science. 76: 66-74.
Parker, A. 1970. An index of weathering for silicate DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016756800058581
rocks. Geological Magazine. 107(6): 501-
Prabhavathi, K., Dasog, G.S., Sahrawat, K.L.,
Patil, P.L and Wani, S.P. 2017.
Characterization, and classification of soils
from three agro-climatic zones of Belgavi
district, Karnataka. Journal of the Indian
Society of Soil Science. 65 (1): 1-9.
Price, J.R and Velbel, M.A. 2003. Chemical
weathering indices applied to weathering
profiles developed on heterogeneous felsic
metamorphic parent rocks. Chemical
Geology. 202(3-4): 397-416.
Ramprakash, T and Seshagirirao, M. 2012.
Characterization and classification of some
soils in a part of Krishna district, Andhra
Pradesh. The Andhra Agricultural Journal.
(3&4): 228-236.
Shan, H.M., Liang, H.C., Peng, S.X., Longe, A.A
and Zhou, A.G. 2015. Effects of watersaturation
and water-loss processes on
composition and structure variations of
landslide, Three Gorges reservoir, China. In:
Water- Rock Interaction. Birkle, P., Torres-
Alvarado, I. S. (Eds.). CRC Press, New York,
USA. pp. 921-924.
Sharma, R.P., Raja, P and Bhaskar, B.P. 2020
Pedogenesis and minerology of alluvial soils
from suthern part of Rajashtan in Aravalli
range, India. Journal Geological Society of
India. 95: 59-66.
Sreedharreddy, K and Naidu, M.V.S. 2016.
Characterization and classification of soils
in semi-arid region of Chennur mandal in
Kadapa district, Andhra Pradesh. Journal of
the Indian Society of Soil Science. 64 (3):
-217.
Tulay, T., Oran, D., Ilhami, B., Seref, K and Oguz,
B. 2019. Chemical weathering indices
applied to soils developed on old lake
sediments in semi-arid region of Turkey.
Eurasian Journal of Soil Science. 8 (1) 60-
Vogt, T. 1927. Sulitjelmafeltets geologiog petrografi
Norges Geologiske Undersokelse (In
Norwegian, with English Abstract) 121: 1-56.
Downloads
Submitted
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The author owns the article's copyright until the article is accepted for publication. After acceptance, the author(s) assigns the article's copyright jointly to both the authors and the Publishers of the Journal of Research ANGRAU (ANGRAU) and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.
