Elsevier

Geoderma

Volume 123, Issues 3–4, December 2004, Pages 193-203
Geoderma

Surface reactivity of Andisols on volcanic ash along the Sunda arc crossing Java Island, Indonesia

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2004.02.005Get rights and content

Abstract

Six highland Andisols along an E–W sequence in Java Island, Indonesia were sampled with the objective to assess the influence of the change of parent ash materials on surface reactivity of Andisols, with emphasis on short-range order mineral constituents and active Al and Fe compounds on fluoride and phosphate sorption. Because of the variety in parent ash materials and under the typical environmental conditions prevailing in East, Central and West Java, respectively, the soil's mineralogical and chemical properties differ significantly. Allophane is formed abundantly with concomitant development of active Al and Fe. The allophane content is found to increase from East to West Java, presumably due in part to the change in parent ash materials. Consequently, active Al and Fe in the soils increase in that order, which in turn raise fluoride reactivity, P-sorption maximum and P-bonding energy, implying an increase in P-fixation and/or P-retention. Estimated soil P-sorption maxima differ significantly between the three regions. There is no difference in P-bonding energy between the soils of the East and Central Java, but the values for these two regions are lower than those of the West Java. It is concluded that in terms of P-fertilizer strategy, the soils of the three regions can be divided into three separate groups: the East, Central and West Java soils display different phosphorus requirements, being lower in the east as compared to the west of the island.

Introduction

Surface reactivity of the solid phases in soils is derived from the chemical behaviour of surface functional groups in soil clays (Sposito, 1984). It is widely acknowledged that amorphous and short-range order clay minerals have large specific surface areas and a high chemical reactivity, and therefore represent active constituents. When present in a substantial amount, they have a marked effect on both physical and chemical properties of the soils. This is particularly true for many volcanic ash-derived soils, displaying significant amounts of mineral materials originally termed as “amorphous” (but understood to contain allophane) in the Soil Taxonomy edition of 1975 (Soil Survey Staff, 1975), and still maintained as such in its 1999 edition (Soil Survey Staff, 1999).

Strong exchange of fluoride and/or phosphate has been recognized as an important feature of volcanic ash derived soils Sudo and Shimoda, 1978, Fiantis et al., 2002. The specific adsorption refers to incorporation of anions as ligands in the coordination shell of Fe or Al atoms, which is ranked as a ligand exchange reaction (Parfitt, 1978). This type of reaction differs from the ion exchange reactions through: (1) the anions react with active Al and Fe compounds to form covalent bonds or inner-sphere complexes; (2) sorption reactions of these anions are not completely reversible making the sorbed anions difficult to be desorbed; (3) the adsorption capacity for these anions is greater than the amount of positive charges; and (4) the ligands on the surface of active Al or Fe compounds are released by ligand exchange reactions (Shoji et al., 1993).

The Andisols in Indonesia, as has often been reported, were developed from a rather wide variety of parent ashes, which were related with the Quaternary eruptions (Hutchison, 1989). Tan (1965) reported that the parent materials from which these Andisols were developed, change from basic to acid types when moving from east to west along the volcanic rim of the Indian Ocean. As suggested by Hutchison (1989), a similar evolution was found along the Sunda Island arc (from Java to Flores), in which 80% of the volcanoes in Indonesia are concentrated, or from east to west on Java Island (Whitford, 1975).

Van Ranst et al. (2002) assessed the influence of changes in parent ash material on a number of physico-chemical properties of Andisols along an E–W sequence in Java. They attributed the decrease in soil pH and exchangeable Ca from East to West Java to the combined effect of the parent ash, becoming more acidic from east to west and the more pronounced seasonality in East Java. The more severely leaching environment in West Java favoured the development of active forms of Al and Fe in weathering of volcanic ash. However, this study did not include P-sorption maximum and P-bonding energy measurements needed for recommendations on P-fertilizer requirements.

The main objective of this investigation was to assess the influence of differences in parent ash material on the surface reactivity of selected highland Andisols along the E–W sequence in Java Island. Special emphasis is given to the impact of short-range order constituents and active Al and Fe compounds on fluoride and phosphate sorption (P-sorption).

Section snippets

Selected highland Andisols

Six pedons between 1250 and 1600 m in altitude and located on volcano slopes belonging to the Sunda arc crossing Java from east to west were selected for the present investigation (Fig. 1; Table 1). All the pedons studied were developed on finely comminuted Quaternary volcanic ash, ranging from basic (calc-alkaline basaltic ash) in East Java to more acidic types (basalt-andesitic ash) in Central and (andesitic tuffaceous ash) in West Java. The annual rainfall at the studied sites ranged from

Chemical and mineralogical properties

The soils under study are all classified as Andisols (Table 1) and the data on chemical and mineralogical properties of the topsoil and the subsoil of the six selected pedons are given in Table 2. The ample amount of organic matter coupled with high pH implies that these soils are fertile in nature. It is seen that soil pH generally decreases from East (Cangar) to West (Cisarua) Java, which is attributed to the parent ash which becomes more acidic from east to west. However, the oxalate-soluble

Conclusions

The highland Andisols in Java Island contain variable allophane content, changing in amount in the order: East<Central<West Java. This is presumably due in part to the difference in parent ash materials being calc-alkaline basaltic, basalt-andesitic and andesitic tuffaceous ash, respectively. Consequently, active Al and Fe increase with concomitant upscaling of fluoride reactivity, P-sorption maximum and P-bonding energy from East to West Java. The data on the P-sorption maximum and P-bonding

References (37)

  • C. Mizota et al.

    Implications of clay mineralogy to the weathering and chemistry of Ap horizons of ando soils in Japan

    Geoderma

    (1980)
  • L.E. Allison

    Organic Carbon

  • P.W. Atkins

    Physical Chemistry

    (1994)
  • Blakemore, L.C., Searly, P.L., Daly, B.K., 1981. Methods for Chemical Analysis of Soils. NZ Bureau Scientific Report...
  • Childs, C.W., 1985. Towards understanding soil mineralogy: II. Notes on ferrihydrite. NZ Soil Bureau Laboratory Report...
  • F. De Coninck et al.

    Mineralogy and formation of some soils of the Belgian Ardennes

    Pedologie

    (1979)
  • Fiantis, D., 2000. Mineralogy and charge properties in ameliorating the fertility status of volcanic soils in West...
  • D. Fiantis et al.

    Phosphate sorption characteristics of allophanic soils from West Sumatra, Indonesia

  • D. Fiantis et al.

    Effect of calcium silicate and superphosphate application on surface charge properties of volcanic soils from West Sumatra, Indonesia

    Commun. Soil Sci. Plant Anal

    (2002)
  • A.H. Fitter et al.

    The use of the Freundlich isotherm for soil phosphate sorption data

    J. Soil Sci

    (1973)
  • R.L. Fox et al.

    Phosphate sorption isotherms for evaluating the phosphate requirements of soils

    Proc.-Soil Sci. Soc. Am

    (1970)
  • J. Hagin et al.

    Comparison of several ways of measuring soil phosphorus availability

    J. Agric. Sci

    (1963)
  • C.S. Hutchison

    Geological Evolution of South-east Asia

    (1989)
  • ISSS-ISRIC-FAO, 1998. World Reference Base for Soil Resources. World Soil Res. Report No. 84. FAO,...
  • Leamy, M.L., Kinloch, D.I., Parfitt, R.L., 1990. International Committee on Andisols: Final Report. Technical Monograph...
  • J.A. McKeague

    An evaluation of 0.1 M pyrophosphate and pyrophosphate-dithionite in comparison with oxalate as extractants of the accumulation products in podzols and some other soils

    Can. J. Soil Sci

    (1967)
  • J.A. McKeague et al.

    Differentiation of forms of extractable iron and aluminium in soils

    Proc.-Soil Sci. Soc. Am

    (1971)
  • D. Muljadi et al.

    The mechanisms of phosphate adsorption by kaolinite, gibbsite and pseudoboehmite

    J. Soil Sci

    (1966)
  • Cited by (17)

    • Charge fingerprint in relation to mineralogical composition of Quaternary volcanic ash along a climatic gradient on Java Island, Indonesia

      2019, Catena
      Citation Excerpt :

      Andosols (IUSS Working Group WRB, 2015) developed on a rather wide variety of Quaternary volcanic ashes are widespread across the island of Java (Hutchison, 1989). Their physico-chemical and mineralogical properties have been studied by several authors (e.g., Tan and van Schuylenborgh, 1959; Tan, 1965; Supriyo et al., 1992; Utami, 1998; Van Ranst et al., 2002, 2004, 2008), revealing a close relationship between certain physico-chemical properties (e.g., base status, phosphate fixation, bulk density, water retention) and the mineralogical composition of the soils. They concluded that the development of these soils is affected by parent ash composition and climatic conditions.

    • Thermal analysis as a predictor for hydrological parameters of fire-affected soils

      2014, Geoderma
      Citation Excerpt :

      The TG and DTA thermograms obtained for both unburned and burned soils showed the characteristic shape found in previous studies, reflecting distinctive endo- and exothermic reactions which take place at different temperature ranges (Fig. 2) (see e.g. De la Rosa et al., 2008a; Duguy and Rovira, 2010; Plante et al., 2009). The results indicate that for the studied soils the mineral fraction apparently had a limited impact on the weight loss (Fig. 3) despite the high reactivity of the mineral fraction of Andisols (Van Ranst et al., 2004). The high SOM content of the studied soils could explain this result.

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text