The Influence of Soil Fertilization with Struvite on Water Efficiency – Lysymetric Columns

Małgorzata Worwąg, Jolanta Sobik-Szołtysek
Czestochowa University of Technology, Poland
corresponding author’s e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract
The rapid physical and chemical degradation of the soil affected the physiological condition of the plants, result-ing in a decrease in yields and their quality. Soil additives, consisting of specific mixtures of mineral compounds, should affect the activation of cellular metabolism processes, soil microflora, best adapted to the environment. An important element in the application of fertilizers is their dose, which is closely related to the previously determined soil parame-ters. This work focuses on the analysis of the impact of struvite soil fertilization on the quality of seepage water, the ex-periment was carried out in lysimeter columns. Different doses (0.1; 0.5; 1.0 g) of struvite obtained under laboratory conditions by chemical synthesis were used in the study. Three levels of soil wash (10, 20, 30 cm) were analyzed for each dose. For washing, distilled water was used in the amount corresponding to the average annual rainfall for the areas from which the soil was taken for testing. The experiment simulated the monthly precipitation each day, and the resulting ef-fluents analyzed: phosphorus content, pH, conductivity, resistance and sum of dissolved substances Total Dissolved Solids (TDS). Based on the obtained results, it was found that the amount of phosphorus leached is directly related to the dose of struvite in the mixture. The dependence between the amount of phosphorus in the leachate and the pH value was con-firmed. Analyzing the effect of struvite fertilization on the soil, an increase in the content of biogenic elements with in-creasing doses, especially of available forms of phosphorus, has been noted. Despite the soil flushing, the phosphorus content in the soil was still high at the end of the experiment, confirming the low solubility of struvite and the slow re-lease of the constituents.

Keywords 
struvite, soil, leachate waters, lysimeter, leaching

Full text
PDF (English)