Summary
Yield of perennial ryegrass and uptake of S at 10, 18 and 25°C were studied in a pot trial using 12 soils with different levels of adsorbed sulphate, total organic S, ester-S, C-bonded S and sulphatase activity.
Adsorbed sulphate gave the best correlations with yield and S-uptake at each temperature. At the end of the trial appreciable levels of adsorbed sulphate remained in all the soils. For a given soil, the amount remaining was the same irrespective of the growth temperature employed. This adsorbed sulphate was considered to be unavailable for plant growth.
Sulphur uptake was greater in all cases (except at 10°C for one soil) than the decrease in adsorbed sulphate during the trial. This additional sulphur was presumed to have come from organic sources and was significantly correlated (0.1%) with organic S, ester-S, C-bonded S and sulphatase activity at each temperature. These correlations were, however, markedly influenced by one organic S rich soil. When this was omitted the significance of the organic S, ester-S and sulphatase activity correlations fell to 5% and the C-bonded S correlations became non-significant. In this latter instance the absence of significant relationships with C-bonded S was taken to indicate that in this trial the fraction was of less importance in S mineralisation than ester-S.
Although sulphatase activity is implicated in the mineralisation process by its significant correlations with the uptake of organic S, other factors are discussed which suggest that the correlations may not be conclusive.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aylmore, L. A. G., Karim, M. and Quirk, J. P. 1967 Adsorption and desorption of sulfate ions by soil constituents. Soil Sci.103, 10–15.
Barrow, N. J. 1967 Studies on extraction and on availability to plants of adsorbed plus soluble sulfate. Soil Sci.104, 242–249.
Barrow, N. J. 1969 Effect of adsorption of sulfate by soils on the amount of sulfate present and its availability to plants. Soil Sci.108, 193–201.
Barrow, N. J. and Shaw, T. C. 1977 The slow reactions between soil and anions: 7. Effect of time and temperature of contact between an adsorbing soil and sulfate. Soil Sci.124, 347–354.
Blakemore, L. C., Searle, P. L. and Daly, B. K. 1972 Methods for chemical analysis of soils. N.Z. Soil Bur. Sci. Rep.10A.
Cooper, P. J. M. 1972 Arylsulphatase activity in northern Nigerian soils. Soil Biol. Biochem.4, 333–337.
Cowling, D. W. and Jones, L. H. P. 1970 A deficiency in soil sulfur supplies for perennial ryegrass in England. Soil Sci.110, 346–354.
Ensminger, L. E. and Freney, J. R. 1966 Diagnostic techniques for determining sulfur deficiencies in crops and soils. Soil Sci.101, 283–290.
Esteban, E., Gomez, M. and Lavado, R. 1973 Determination of available sulphate of the Granada district. Agrochimica17, 210–217.
Fitzgerald, J. W. 1976 Sulfate ester formation and hydrolysis: a potentially important yet often ignored aspect of the sulfur cycle of aerobic soils. Bacteriol. Rev.40, 698–721.
Fox, R. L., Olson, R. A. and Rhoades, H. F. 1964 Evaluating the sulfur status of soils by plant and soil tests. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. Proc.28, 243–246.
Freney, J. R. 1961 Some observations on the nature of organic sulphur compounds in soil. Aust. J. Agric. Res.12, 424–432.
Freney, J. R., Melville, G. E. and Williams, C. H. 1970 The determination of carbon bonded sulfur in soil. Soil Sci.109, 310–318.
Freney, J. R., Melville, G. E. and Williams, C. H. 1971 Organic sulphur fractions labelled by addition of35 S-sulphate to soil. Soil Biol. Biochem.3, 131–141.
Freney, J. R., Melville, G. E. and Williams, C. H. 1975 Soil organic matter fractions as sources of plant-available sulphur. Soil Biol. Biochem.7, 217–221.
Freney, J. R. and Spencer, K. 1960 Soil sulphate changes in the presence and absence of growing plants. Aust. J. Agric. Res.11, 339–345.
Freney, J. R. and Stevenson, F. J. 1966 Organic sulfur transformations in soils. Soil Sci.101, 307–316.
Freney, J. R. and Swaby, R. J. 1975 Sulphur transformations in soils.In Sulphur in Australasian Agriculture. Ed. K. D. McLachlan. 31–39 Sydney University Press, Sydney.
Harward, M. E., Chao, T. T. and Fang, S. C. 1962 The sulfur status and sulfur-supplying power of Oregon soils. Agron. J.54, 101–106.
Hewlett-Packard 1972 A 404-360 38BIn HP BASIC program library handbook.
Johnson, C. M. and Nishita, H. 1952 Microestimation of sulphur in plant material, soil and irrigation waters. Anal. Chem.24, 736–742.
Jones, L. H. P., Cowling, D. W. and Lockyer, D. R. 1972 Plant available and extractable sulfur in some soils of England and Wales. Soil Sci.114, 104–114.
Khaziev, F. KH. 1975 Thermodynamic characteristics of enzyme reactions in soil. Biol. Nauki.10, 121–127.
Kowalenko, C. G. and Lowe, L. E. 1975 Evaluation of several extraction methods and of a closed incubation method for soil sulfur mineralisation. Can. J. Soil Sci.55, 1–8.
Kowalenko, C. G. and Lowe, L. E. 1975 Mineralisation of sulfur from four soils and its relationship to soil carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. Can. J. Soil Sci.55, 9–14.
McClaren, R. G. and Swift, R. S. 1977 Changes in soil organic sulphur fractions due to the long term cultivation of soils. J. Soil Sci.28, 445–453.
Mitchell, K. J. 1954 Influence of light and temperature on growth of ryegrass (Lolium spp.) III. Pattern and rate of tissue formation. Physiol. Plant.7, 51–65.
Perez, A. and Oesliglè, D. D. 1975 Comparison of several extractants for estimating sulphur in Costa Rican soils. Turrialba25, 232–238.
Sanders, F. E. and Tinker, P. B. H. 1975 Adsorption of sulphate by a sandy loam soil (calcic cambisol). Geoderma13, 317–324.
Saunders, W. M. H. 1965 Phosphate retention by New Zealand soils and its relationship to free sesquioxides, organic matter, and other soil properties. N.Z. J. Agric. Res.8, 30–57.
Saunders, W. M. H. and Copper, D. M. 1975 Evaluation of soil and plant analysis to determine sulphur status of New Zealand soils.In Sulphur in Australasian Agriculture. Ed. K. D. McLachlan. 188–195. Sydney University Press, Sydney.
Singh, B. B. and Jones, J. P. 1977 Phosphorus sorption isotherms for evaluating phosphorus requirements of lettuce at five temperature regimes. Plant and Soil46, 31–44.
Soil Survey Staff 1975 Soil Taxonomy. A basic system of soil classification for making and interpreting soil surveys. Soil Conservation Service U.S. Dept. Agric. Handb. 436. p 754.
Speir, T. W. 1977 Studies on a climosequence of soils in tussock grasslands II. Urease, phosphatase, and sulphatase activities of topsoils and their relationships with other properties including plant available sulphur. N.Z. J. Sci.20, 159–166.
Speir, T. W. and Ross, D. J. 1975 Effects of storage on the activities of protease, urease, phosphatase, and sulphatase in three soils under pasture. N.Z. J. Sci.18, 231–237.
Speir, T. W. and Ross, D. J. 1978 Soil phosphatase and sulphatase.In Soil Enzymes Ed. R. G. Burns p. 380. Academic Press, London.
Spencer, K. and Freney, J. R. 1960 A comparison of several procedures for estimating the sulphur status of soils. Aust. J. Agric. Res.11, 948–959.
Sullivan, J. T. and Sprague, V. G. 1949 The effect of temperature on the growth and composition of the stubble and roots of perennial ryegrass. Plant Physiol.24, 706–719.
Tabatabai, M. A. and Bremner, J. M. 1972 Distribution of total and available sulfur in selected soils and soil profiles. Agron. J.64, 40–43.
Tabatabai, M. A. and Bremner, J. M. 1972 Forms of sulfur, and carbon, nitrogen and sulfur relationships in Iowa soils. Soil Sci.114, 380–386.
Walker, T. W. 1955 Sulphur responses on pastures in Australia and New Zealand. Soils Fert.18, 185–187.
Walker, T. W. 1957 The sulphur cycle in grassland soils. J. Br. Grassl. Soc.12, 10–18.
Walker, T. W. and Adams, A. F. R. 1958 Studies on soil organic matter: I Influence of phosphorus content of parent materials on accumulations of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and organic phosphorus in grassland soils. Soil Sci.85, 307–318.
Westerman, P. T. 1974 Indexes of sulphur deficiency in alfalfa I. Extractable soil SO4−S. Agron. J.66, 578–581.
Whitehead, D. C. 1964 Soil and plant nutrition aspects of the sulphur cycle. Soils Fert27, 1–8.
Widdowson, J. P. 1970 Available sulphur in some Iowa soils. Unpubl. Ph. D. Thesis Iowa State University.
Widdowson, J. P. and Blakemore, L. C. 1974 Available sulphur in a New Zealand soil climosequence. Sulph. Inst. J.10, 8–9.
Widdowson, J. P. and Hanway, J. J. 1974 Available sulfur status of some representative Iowa soils. Iowa State Univ. Sci. Techn. Res. Bull.579.
Williams, C. H. 1967 Some factors affecting the mineralisation of organic sulphur in soils. Plant and Soil24, 205–223.
Williams, C. H. 1975 The chemical nature of sulphur compounds in soils.In Sulphur in Australasian Agriculture. Ed. K. D. McLachlan. 21–30. Sydney University Press, Sydney.
Williams, C. H. and Steinbergs, A. 1964 The evaluation of plant-available sulphur in soils. II. The availability of adsorbed and insoluble sulphates. Plant and Soil21, 50–62.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lee, R., Speir, T.W. Sulphur uptake by ryegrass and its relationship to inorganic and organic sulphur levels and sulphatase activity in soil. Plant Soil 53, 407–425 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02140714
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02140714