Analysis of Tropical Rain Forest Soil

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Analysis of Tropical Rain Forest Soil Tropical
Dry Forest Tree
Teiko Breid
6-1-1999

• Determination of Soil pH
• Comparison of Available NH4-N and NO3-N
• Comparison of N in Soil and Pochote
• Comparison of N and CN Ratio
• Comparison of Elemental Concentration in Soil and
  Pochote
• Comparison of Exchangeable Cations and Elemental
  Concentration
• Determination of CEC

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Determination of Soil pH

• Salt (CaCl2) decreases pH
• pH Range 5.76 3.81
• Tropical Rain Forest Soil was Acidic
• Acidic soil may have unacceptably high
  concentration of Al

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Available NH4-N NO3-Nat Different Depths
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Available NO3-N vs NH4-N

• Available NO3-N gt NH4-N
• Pit 7 had the highest NO3-N NH4-N
• Pit 1 had the lowest NH4-N
• Pit 5 had the lowest NO3-N

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Nitrogen in Soil Pochote
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Nitrogen vs CN Ratio
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Elemental Concentration in Soil
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Elemental Concentration of Soilwithout Al
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Elemental Concentration of Pochote

• Pochote at Pit 7 had high prime nutrient, K
• Pochote at Pit 1 had high toxic Al
• Pochote at Pit 10 had high Ca

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Plant Elemental Concentration / Soil Elemental
Concentration

• Bohn S gt Ca gt K gt P gt Mg gt Na gt Al
• Mine K gt Ca gt S gt P gt Mg gt Na gt Al

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Exchangeable Cationsat Different Location
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Cation Exchange Capacityat Different Location

• The upper depths soils contained slightly higher
  CEC then the lower depths soils
• Pit 10 had the highest CEC

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Exchangeable Cations

• Ca had highest exchangeable percentage
• The prime nutrient, K had the 2nd high
  exchangeable percentage
• Pit 10 had the highest percentage of Al

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Conclusion

• Tropical rain forest soil was acidic
• Pit 10 was the most acidic soil and had the
  highest Al concentration and lowest N and low K
• Only pit 10 is located at slope
• Much lower N at lower depths than at upper
  depths
• Much lower exchangeable cations at lower depths
  than at upper depths