Toxicity and Antagonism of Various Alkali Salts in the Soil1
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TOXICITY AND ANTAGONISM OF VARIOUS ALKALI SALTS IN THE SOIL1 By F. S. HARRIS, formerly Director, M. D. THOMAS, Associate in Agronomy y and D. W. 2 PITTMAN, Instructor in Agronomy, Utah Agricultural Experiment Station In the studies of soil alkali which have been carried out at the Utah Station (4, 5)3 during the past 10 years, a large number of the factors which influence the toxicity of most of the commonly occurring alkali salts have been correlated. It has been frequently noticed, however, that the toxicity of a mixture of salts in a soil seems to be the sum of the separate toxicities of the constituents of the mixture, and since these observations are at variance with the marked antagonistic action of the same salts in solution cultures a more detailed study of this question has been undertaken. The experiments described in this paper were planned to show the influence on plant growth of adding other salts, as well as acids and manure, to a soil already impregnated with sodium carbonate. The possibility of finding a marked antagonism between some of these added substances and "black alkali" was an incentive to make the scope of the investigation as broad as possible. Since the results from this point of view, however, are largely negative the data are presented as a contri- bution to the literature on the toxicity of mixtures of alkali salts. Some preliminary work has also been done on soils impregnated with sodium chlorid and sodium nitrate instead of soditun carbonate. REVIEW OF THE UTERATURE Experiments conducted by Kearney and Cameron (6) were among the first to show the ameliorating effect of adding a second alkali salt to a solution which was already toxic to plants. In their work the plants were germinated while not in contact with the alkali salts, and the roots were then held in the solution for 24 hours. The toxicity of the solution, was determined by slight injury to the root tips. The toxic concentra- tions were not proportional to the concentrations which absolutely pre- vented growth of the plants, and the toxicity of the salts exchanged places somewhat when the absolute rather than the minimum check in growth was considered. Very small quantities of salts caused slight injury to the roots. The addition of a second cation to a toxic solution was found to reduce the toxicity of the solution more than the addition of a second anion. Sodium in most combinations greatly weakened the toxic action of magnesium. Calcium, especially in the form of the sulphate, markedly counteracted the injurious effect of either sodium or magnesium ions. Calcium sulphate was much more beneficial to the sulphates of sodium and magnesium than to their chlorids. A very 1 Accepted for publication July n, 1922. * The authors wish to express their appreciation to Mr. N. I. Butt for his help in calculating and tabulat- ing the data presented in this paper. 3 Reference is made by number (italic) to " Literature cited," p. 337-338 Journal of Agricultural Research. Vol. XXIV, No. 4 Washingtoh, D. C Apr. »8, 1923 acd Key No. Utah-17 (SI?) 318 Journal of A gricultural Research vol. xxiv, No. 4 effective neutralization of sodium carbonate injury was found when calcium chlorid was added to the solution. The work of Miyake(7j) with rice in cultures of magnesium sulphate, magnesium chlorid, calcium chlorid, sodium sulphate, and sodium chlorid showed that while N/io solutions of the individual salts were toxic, when two of these solutions were mixed in certain proportions the toxic effect was more or less neutralized. The greatest neutraliza- tion of toxicity was observed when calcium chlorid was added to mag- nesium sulphate or chlorid. Some antagonism was also noticed between chlorids and sulphates of sodium and magnesium, as well as between potassium chlorid and magnesium or calcium chlorid. In a study of the antagonism between sodium and potassium, the salts—sodium nitrate, potassium chlorid, potassium nitrate, sodium chlorid, potassium sulphate, and sodium sulphate—were used. The antagonistic action of the cations on each other was much greater than that of the anions. The greatest antagonism between sodium and potassium usually oc- curred when one part of one N/io solution was mixed with four parts of another. Osterhout(i2) found that antagonism between sodium chlorid and potassium chlorid was greater when one of the salts predominated in the solution than when both were present in nearly equal quantities. Small quantities of ammonium chlorid, magnesium chlorid, or calcium chlorid reduced the toxicity of either potassium chlorid or sodium chlorid, but with calcium chlorid even larger quantities were beneficial. Kearney and Harter(7) tested the tolerance of eight different kinds of plants to solutions of sodium and magnesium salts and found that cal- cium sulphate greatly diminished the toxicity of the salts, especially magnesium. Calcium sulphate changed the order of toxicity of the solutions. Hansteen(j), working with wheat seedlings, has found that calcium compounds exert a beneficial effect on the toxicity of solutions of alkali salts. A comparison of soils and solutions by Harris(4) showed the antago- nism between the common alkali salts to be more pronounced in solu- tion cultures of wheat seedlings than in loam soils. In fact the only consistent case of antagonism observed in soil seems to have been with the nitrates of potassium, sodium, and magnesium at 4,000 parts per million (4, p. 46). Some of the most positive antagonistic results in soils have been secured by measuring the activity of soil bacteria. By this means it has been shown by different experimenters that there is antagonism between anions as well as between cations of the salts common in alkali soils. This work has been so well summarized in a paper by Greaves(2) that the reader is referred to this publication for a review of this phase of the subject. Experimenting with barley growing on a clay-adobe soil, Lipman and Gericke(£) found antagonism between sodium chlorid and sodium sul- phate and between sodium chlorid and sodium carbonate in the second crop, though there was no antagonism shown between these salts in the crop grown soon after the salts had been added. A slight antagonism was noticed between sodium carbonate and sodium sulphate in the first crop. A marked antagonism between sodium sulphate and cal- cium sulphate was apparent in both the first and second crops. Apr. 28,1923 Toxicity and A ntagonism of A Ikali Salts in Soil 319 To discover the possibilities of applying the principles of antagonism to the correction of alkali as found in field soils, Lipman and Sharp (10) secured natural alkali soil containing 6,400 parts per million of water- soluble salts of which 4,590 parts per million were sodium chlorid, 980 parts per million sodium sulphate, and 830 parts per million sodium carbonate. Adding 119 parts per million of sulphuric acid to this soil wasrfound to be especially beneficial to the growth of barley; and up to 451 parts per million, the highest quantity tried, this acid was helpful. Calcium sulphate at the rate of 670 parts per million, ferrous sulphate at 324 parts per million, and manure at 3,240 parts per million all ma- terially improved the crop-producing power of the soil. Copper and sodium sulphates at the rate of 65 and 130 parts per million, respec- tively, were harmful to the crop. Lipman and Gericke(9), growing barley on a clay-adobe soil, found that copper and zinc reduced the toxicity of sodium chlorid, sodium sulphate, and sodium carbonate. Marked antagonism was also noticed between these salts, especially between copper sulphate and sodium chlorid when applied to a sand soil. Caldwell(j) found no antagonism between sodium chlorid and any one of the chlorids of calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper, or am- monium, with the possible exception of ammonium and magnesium in certain proportions, when he grew com in quartz sand. Potassium and sodium were always more toxic together than when only one was present at a given strength. Adding either calcium chlorid or copper chlorid to sodium chlorid appeared to ameliorate the injurious effect of the latter by diluting the solution rather than by counteracting the harmful effects of the sodium salt. EXPERIMENTAL WORK METHOD The experiments here reported were conducted in glass tumblers con- taining the equivalent of 200 gm. of dry soil and the optimum amount of moisture. Wheat was the crop grown. The requisite quantity of sodium carbonate in 10 per cent solution was added to five 7-kilo portions of air-dry soil, and each portion was mixed separately by forcing it through a fine sieve twice. They were then placed together in a large can and shaken thoroughly at intervals for several days before being used. This method of mixing gave a very satisfactory distribution of the car- bonate, as was shown by analyses of a large number of samples taken from different parts of the can. To the soil for each tumbler the other materials were then added, in solution whenever possible, together with the necessary water, and the soil was thoroughly mixed on a piece of oilcloth. Ten kernels of wheat were planted in each vessel. The surface of the soil was covered with a thin layer of a mixture of 50 per cent paraffin and 50 per cent petrolatum to prevent surface evaporation. A short glass tube extending to the center of the soil mass from the surface permitted the addition of water as it was needed to keep the weight of the tumbler constant. The mulch was very effective, and it was therefore possible to avoid altering the uniformity of the distribu- tion of the soluble material through irrigation—at least until the plants were fairly large—as the weight of the tumbler did not change appreciably 320 Journal of Agricultural Research Vol.