Investigation of effect of parent material and plant species on profile distribution of nutritional elements in soils of Kuhrang mountain rangelands

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Former MSc student, Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Iran.

2 assistant professor of Department of Soil Science/ Isfahan University of Technology

3 Department of soil science, Isfahan university of technology

4 Department of Soil science and engineering, Faculty of agriculture, University of Tabriz

Abstract

Parent material and vegetation are two important and influential factors in the formation of soil. Type of elements in the soil and their availability to plants depends deeply on soil parent material. However, type and density of vegetation change with amount of organic matter and mechanism of element cycle overshadowed the availability of element in rangeland ecosystem. This study were conducted to investigate profile distribution of nutritional elements affected by rangeland species and different parent material as a factorial trial and completely randomized design with three replications in rangelands around Kuhrang city. Therefore, in the study area, three different parent matter such as fossiliferous marl limestone, fossiliferous dolomitic limestone and red conglomerate and sandstone were selected. In each parent material, three places under Astragalus spp and Daphne and the bare part as a control profile to depth of 100 cm were dug. Then the soil physical and chemical properties and concentrations of nutritional elements in profiles were measured. The results of this study showed that type of parent material have significant effect on amount of soil element while the vegetation in some cases could not make a significant difference in concentration of elements. Red conglomerate parent material because of coarser texture, release fewer element compared to marl and dolomite limestone in soil. Soils in study area except soils derived from red conglomerate parent material, there is no shortage of potassium and phosphorous. Furthermore, concentration of elements in different depths of the profiles obeyed a similar pattern

Keywords

Journal of Range and Watershed Managment
Volume 70, Issue 4
Winter 2018
Pages 1089-1102

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