Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer ISSN:0367-6315(Print) 2288-2162(Online) 한국토양비료학회 학회지

Water-extractable anions in soils and plants are major forms of essential nonmetal nutrients (N, P, S, and Cl) and important for understanding the soil’s current nutrient supply conditions and the plant’s recent nutrient uptake status. We investigated the compositions of major inorganic anions (nitrate, orthophosphates, chloride, and sulfate) in both soil and plant water extracts obtained from 19 farmlands (5 monocots, 4 tree dicots, and 10 non-tree dicots). We observed that, although there were several important general properties of soil and plant anions, the anionic compositions were mostly inherent characteristics of each soil and varied largely depending on the plant species. A multivariate factor analysis revealed that the anionic compositions of each soil solution were well characterized by their responses to increments of electrical conductivity. In addition, the leaf anion compositions of each plant tended to share similar characteristics within the same plant types (monocots, tree dicots, and non-tree dicots).

The leaf-extract concentrations of each anion showed clearly different distributions from those for soil extracts The concentrations and relative proportions of Cl^- were predominantly higher than other anions. The degree of variation of NO₃^- was similar to that of Cl^-, but its concentrations and proportions were considerably smaller than SO₄^2-.