Mineral Nutrients in Soils and Plants

90% is water, rest mostly C, O and H

C, H, O, K, N, Ca, Mg, P, S, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Ma, Cl and B

Nitrogen fixators and cobalt and nickel

Grown, harvested, dried, incubated and ash disposed

Al and Mn in acidic soils, Na and Cl in saline soils

A process of diffusion, depending on cuticle permeability and concentration gradients

Green tissues by foliar uptake, mostly roots

Roots to the vascular system, most effectively done at the tip, whilst less so beyond with formation of the endothermis, seperating conductive tissues and roots

Photosynthetic product breakdown, limited by cold or O2

Zylen transports to shoot by mass flow, after delivery to growing shoots, reabsorbed from xylem fluid and assimilated

Mediates re-translocation from older to younger tissues: N and S readily mobilised as protein

Leaching would othersiw deplete soil of nutrients

CEC rapid whilst SOM slow

Amounts/kinds of solid-phase nutrients, soil water content, temperature, aeration, microbial activities and soil solution properties

Most readily exchangeable

K, Ca, Mg and other metals(Fe, Mn and Al supplied by hydroxy-oxide dissolution)

More ions the tighter they are held, however phosphate always held tightly

Increases tightness of Fe, Cu, Zn and Mn, reversible by microbes

Root density, length, penetration depth and lateral spread, and individual characteristics, influencing root distribution

Slenderness for energy efficiency, but enough thickness to penetrate soils, extending rhizosphere depletion stone