Soil Amendment Substances
Soil amendments are the substances that applied to or mixed into the topsoil to improve physical, chemical and biological properties of soil and plant growth. They can improve soil fertility, promote the growth and reproduction of microorganisms in the soil, improve the agricultural productivity of soil and improve the environment for plant growth. Using soil amendment is an important solution for remediation of degraded soil. There are many raw materials for soil amendment, which make their composition very complicated. The main components of soil amendment are humic acid, acrylamide, glucose, lignin sulfonate, nitrohumic acid, acrylic acid, lignin, cellulose, organic silicon, polyacrylamide, poly (ethylene oxide), starch, polysaccharide carboxylic acid and urea.
Classification
There are many classification methods of soil amendment. The details are as follows.
According to their properties, soil amendment can be divided into acid soil amendment, alkaline soil amendment, nutrient soil amendment, organic soil amendment, inorganic soil amendment, soil amendment for preventing and controlling soil-borne diseases, microbial soil amendments and so on.
According to their applications, soil amendment can be divided into soil amendment for preventing soil degradation, soil amendment for preventing soil erosion, soil amendment for reducing soil heavy metal pollution, soil amendment for barren land development and soil amendment for saline-alkali land improvement, etc.
According to the source of raw materials, soil amendments can be roughly divided into four categories, namely natural amendments, synthetic amendments, natural and synthetic copolymer amendments and biological amendments.
Advantages
Improve physical structure of soil: After adding soil amendment, the aggregate structure, total porosity, capillary pore, non-capillary pore and aeration of soil are increased and the soil will become loose.
Improve water storage capacity and water use efficiency of soil: After adding soil amendment, the soil evaporation will decrease and soil water content will increase, thus improving water use efficiency.
Improve soil fertility and nutrient utilization: The application of soil amendment will improve the absorption and activation of fertilizer elements by plants, reduce the amount of liquid fertilizer into the soil and slow down the nutrient element's loss. Therefore, soil fertility can be maintained and provided to animals and plants for absorption and utilization, thus improving the nutrient utilization.
Regulate the soil temperature: Some inorganic soil amendments such as bitumen and fly ash can obviously improve the soil temperature.
Control soil erosion: The polymer soil amendment can significantly increase the content of water-stable aggregates in the soil, improve the soil structure and increase the ability of soil to resist water erosion, thus reducing the problem of soil loss.
Regulate soil salt content: Some soil amendments can neutralize or alkalize soil, regulate the pH of soil and enhance soil buffering capacity.
Improve soil biochemical properties: The soil biochemical activity is affected by soil microorganism quantity and soil enzymes activities. The microorganism quantity (bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, phosphorus bacteria, potassium bacteria, cellulolytic bacteria) and the soil enzymes activities (catalase, urease, phosphatase and cellulase) are increased in different degrees when adding soil amendment.
Promote plant growth and increase crop yield: Soil amendment can create a good moisture condition for crop growth by improving soil structure and increasing porosity.
Improve problem of soil pollution: Some soil amendments can increase ion exchange rate and adsorb heavy metals in soil.
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