Theoretical Problems of Improving Agrochemical Terminology

Abstract

Various terms are in common use to characterize the provision of nutrients by the soil: assimilable, labile, available, mobile, exchangeable, active, and others. But there is no unambiguous interpretation of any of these terms. Since all the chemical methods of assessing nutrients in the soil use the same principle, it is not correct to say that, according to a specific method, an element is more available than according to another method. Moreover, weak correlation between the data obtained by different methods indicates random or systematic errors. The lack of clear definitions leads to misunderstanding and makes it hard to develop accurate soil diagnostic methods, and hard to solve the nutrient-use efficiency problem. Therefore, further theoretical research is needed to improve agrochemical terms.