Abstract
This study focuses on the evaluation of different chemical characteristics of humic acids (HA) from Nigeria Alfisol as surrogates of soil agroecological quality under different cultivation regimes in proximity. Conventional cassava farm, oil palm plantation, agroforestry, and undisturbed sites were studied at two soil depths of 0–15 cm and 15–30 cm using elemental analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The highest yield of HAs was recorded at the undisturbed site at the two soil depths (topsoil, 25%, and subsoil, 15%). The percent carbon of the humic acid extracted from the topsoil and subsoil clustered around 56%. Strong peaks attributed to structural vibrations of aromatic C = C and antisymmetrical stretching of COO– groups around 1630 cm–1 region was common to all the spectra. The topsoil of the oil palm plantation showed band peak at 1230 cm−1 which were attributed to C–O stretching and OH bending of COOH functional group. Cultivation type and soil depth had a great influence on the humic acid yield. Crops planted on the farms do not significantly influence the characteristics of humic acids, which suggest high stability and resilience as shown in the FTIR spectra of HAs. However, notable differences in the intensity of some bands were observed depending on site characteristics and soil depth. A steady supply of plant residues in the tree-based agricultural systems significantly improved OM accumulation and quantity of humic acid.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
The authors declare that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the paper. Should any raw data files be needed in another format they are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Source data are provided in this paper.
References
Adesanwo, O. O., Adetunji, M. T., Adesanwo, J. K., Osiname O. A., Diatta, S. and Torimiro, D. O. (2009). Evaluation of traditional soil fertility management practices for rice cultivation in southwestern Nigeria. Am.-Eurasian J. Agron 2:45–49. https://www.idosi.org/aeja/2(2)09/1.pdf
Adewole MB, Anyahara UC (2010) Adoption rate of land clearing techniques and their effects on some soil fertility parameters of an Alfisol in southwestern Nigeria. Afr J Agric Res 5:3310–3315. https://doi.org/10.5897/AJAR10.720
Ajibade AC, Woakes M, Rahaman MA (1987) Proterozoic crustal development in the Pan-African regime of Nigeria. In Kroner A. (Ed.), Proterozoic lithoshperic evolution, vol. 17, American Geophysical Union, Washington DC, 259–271. https://doi.org/10.1029/GD017p0259
Awotoye OO, Adebola SI, Matthew OJ (2013) The effects of land-use changes on soil properties in a humid tropical location; little-Ose forest reserve, south-western Nigeria. Res J Agric Environ Manag 2:176–182
Canellas LP, Olivares FL (2014) Physiological responses to humic substances as plant growth promoter. Chem Biol Technol Agric 1:3. https://doi.org/10.1186/2196-5641-1-3
Cepáková Š, Frouz J (2015) Changes in chemical composition of litter during decomposition: a review of published 13C NMR spectra. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 15:805–815. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-95162015005000055
Fahad, S., Chavan, S. B., Chichaghare, A. R., Uthappa, A. R., Kumar, M., Kakade, V., ... and Poczai, P. (2022). Agroforestry systems for soil health improvement and maintenance. Sustainability 14:14877. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142214877
Fernández-Romero ML, Clark JM, Collins CD, Parras-Alcántara L, Lozano-García B (2016) Evaluation of optical techniques for characterising soil organic matter quality in agricultural soils. Soil Tillage Res 155:450–460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.still.2015.05.004
Gonsalves DRP, de Moraes Sá JC, Mishra U, Cerri CEP, Ferreira LA, Furlan FJF (2017) Soil type and texture impacts on soil organic carbon storage in a sub-tropical agro-ecosystem. Geoderma 286:88–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2016.10.021
Gregorich EG, Carter MR, Angers DA, Monreal CM, Ellert BH (1994) Towards a minimum data set to assess soil organic matter quality in agricultural soils. Can J Soil Sci 74:367–385. https://doi.org/10.4141/cjss94-051
Hamza A, Akinrinde EA (2016) Response of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) to residual phosphate in soybean-Sorghum and maize-Sorghum crop rotation schemes on two contrasting Nigerian Alfisols. Int. J. Agron https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/6945024
Koarashi J, Iida T, Asano T (2005) Radiocarbon and stable carbon isotope compositions of chemically fractionated soil organic matter in a temperate-zone forest. J Environ Radioact 79:137–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvrad.2004.06.002
Lal R (2006) Soil carbon sequestration in Latin America. In: Lal R, Cerri CC, Bernoux M, Etcheves J, Cerri E (eds) Carbon sequestration in soils of Latin America. Food Products Press, New York, pp 49–64
Liu M, Han G, Zhang Q (2019) Effects of soil aggregate stability on soil organic carbon and nitrogen under land use change in an erodible region in Southwest China. Int J Environ Res Public Health 16:3809. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16203809
Lodygin E, Beznosikov B, Abakumov E (2017) Humic substances elemental composition of selected taiga and tundra soils from Russian European North-East. Pol Polar Res 38:125–147. https://doi.org/10.1515/popore−2017−0007
Machado W, Franchini JC, de FátimaGuimarães M, Tavares Filho J (2020) Spectroscopic characterization of humic and fulvic acids in soil aggregates, Brazil. Heliyon 6:e04078. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04078
McCarthy P (2001) The principles of humic substances. Soil Sci 166:738–751. https://doi.org/10.1097/00010694-200211000-00004
Milori DMBP, Martin-Neto L, Bayer C, Mielniczuk J, Bagnato V (2002) Humification degree of soil humic acids determined by fluorescence spectroscopy. Soil Sci 167:739–749. https://doi.org/10.1097/00010694-200211000-00004
Nebbioso A, Piccolo A (2012) Advances in humeomic: enhanced structural identification of humic molecules after size fractionation of a soil humic acid. Anal Chim Acta 720:77–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aca.2012.01.027
Nebbioso A, Mazzei P, Savy D (2014) Reduced complexity of multidimensional and diffusion NMR spectra of soil humic fractions as simplified by Humeomics. Chem Biol Technol Agric 1:24. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40538-014-0024-y
Negasa T, Ketema H, Legesse A, Sisay M, Temesgen H (2017) Variation in soil properties under different land use types managed by smallholder farmers along the toposequence in southern Ethiopia. Geoderma 290:40–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/27658511.2022.2093058
Obimba OH, Alaga AT, Alwadood JA (2017) Remote sensing and GIS techniques for ground water exploration in Ilesha area, Osun State, Nigeria. J of Geog. Env Earth Sci Intl 10:1–10. https://doi.org/10.9734/JGEESI/2017/22463
Orimoogunje OOI, Oyinloye RO, Soumah M (2009) Geospatial mapping of wetlands potential in Ilesa, Southwestern Nigeria. Surveyors Key Role in Accelerated Development EILAT, Israel. FIG Working Week 1–18
Piccolo A (2002) The supramolecular structure of humic substances: a novel understanding of humus chemistry and implications in soil science. Adv Agron 75:57–134
Ramos AC, Dobbss LB, Santos LA, Fernandes MS, Olivares FL, Aguiar NO, Canellas LP (2015) Humic matter elicits proton and calcium fluxes and signaling dependent on Ca 2+ -dependent protein kinase (CDPK) at early stages of lateral plant root development. Chem Biol Technol Agric 2:3. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40538-014-0030-0
Rovira P, Vallejo VR (2007) Labile, recalcitrant and inert organic matter in Mediterranean forest soils. Soil Biol Biochem 39:202–215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soilbio.2006.07.021
Salehi MH, Beni OH, Harchegani HG, Borujeni IE (2011) Refining soil organic matter determination by loss-on-ignition. Pedosphere 21:473–482. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1002-0160(11)60149-5
Schnitzer M (1983) Organic matter characterization. Methods of soil analysis: part 2 Chemical and microbiological properties. Soil Sci Soc Am 9:581–594
Smyth AJ, Montgomery RF (1962) Soils and land-use in Central Western Nigeria. Western Nigerian Government Press, Ibadan p, p 217
Toru T, Kibret K (2019) Carbon stock under major land use/land cover types of Hades sub-watershed, eastern Ethiopia. Carbon Balance Manag 14:1–14. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13021-019-0122-z
Wendling B, Jucksch I, Mendonca ES, Alvarenga RC (2010) Organic-matter pools of soil under pines and annual cultures. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 41:1707–1722. https://doi.org/10.1080/00103624.2010.489135
Yang X, Zhang S, Tian Y, Guo W, Wang J (2013) The influence of humic acids on the accumulation of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd) in tobacco leaves grown in different soils. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 13:43–53. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-95162013005000005
Zavarzina AG, Kravchenko EG, Konstantinov AI, Perminova IV, Chukov SN, Demin VV (2019) Comparison of the properties of humic acids extracted from soils by alkali in the presence and absence of oxygen. Eurasian Soil Sci 52:880–891. https://doi.org/10.1134/S1064229319080167
Acknowledgements
We gratefully acknowledge the management and students of Leventis Foundation Nigeria Agricultural Training School Farm in Ilesa, Nigeria, who allowed and assisted us to collect soil samples at different sites for this study. The authors are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Salami, O.O., Adesanwo, O.O. & Awotoye, O.O. Soil Quality from Nigerian Alfisol Under Different Agricultural Land Use Types. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 23, 4342–4349 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-023-01353-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-023-01353-w