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Effect of Complexing Agents and Acids on the Diffusion of Zinc to a Simulated Root¹

ABSTRACT

Porous ceramic tubes were embedded in soil tagged with ⁶⁵Zn. Solutions were slowly passed through the tubes, allowing diffusion of the solutes into the soil and diffusion of Zn from the soil to the tubes. Solution from the tubes was analyzed for ⁶⁵Zn. The solutes used were EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacteic acid), HCl, citric acid, an amino acid mixture, and glucose. EDTA caused the greatest increase of Zn transport into the ceramic tubes (simulated roots). For example, when 10^-3M EDTA was passed through such a tube Zn diffusion increased 17-fold over that occurring with water alone. The effectiveness of other agents decreased in the order listed above. Increasing the concentrations of solute generally increased ⁶⁵Zn diffusion. This study demonstrates how complexing agents or acids from root exudates or from decomposing organic residues in soils may increase the transport and availability of insoluble nutrients.

¹ Contribution from the Department of Agronomy, Colorado State Univ. Ft. Collins and Northern Plains Branch, Soil & Water Conservation Research Div., ARS, USDA. Part of a dissertation submitted by the senior author in partial fulfillment of a graduate program in Soil Science for the Ph.D. degree. Published with the approval of the Director of the Colorado Agr. Exp. Sta. as Scientific Series Paper no. 1367. This work was supported in part by the Division of Agricultural Development, Tennessee Valley Authority, Muscle Shoals, Ala.

² Graduate Research Assistant; Professor of Soil Science; Professor of Soil Science and Soil Scientist, USDA, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins. The senior author is now Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Agronomy, Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind., and the latter author is now Director US Soils Laboratory, Beltsville, Md.

Received for publication October 7, 1968. Accepted for publication November 21, 1969.