Summary
Laboratory experiments were conducted to study the effect of algal growth on the change of (I) pH, (II) available phosphorus and (III) solubility of iron and manganese content in five waterlogged alluvial rice soils of West Bengal, India. The results showed that the algal growth initially caused an increase in the soil pH, which later declined to the original value in some of the soils. The available phosphorus content decreased upto 90 days of their growth and began to increase towards the later period of incubation. The drastic fall of water soluble plus exchaneable manganese content of the soils due to algal growth was accompanied by similar increase in reducible manganese content. No appreciable change in water soluble plus exchangeable ferrous iron content was encountered but theN-NH4OAC(pH 3) extractable iron due to algal growth progressively decreased with the progress of the incubation period.
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References
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Sankaram, A. 1971 Work done on Blue-green Algae in Relation to Agriculture. Bull. No.27, ICAR, New Delhi, 28 p.
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Saha, K.C., Mandal, L.N. Effect of algal growth on the availability of phosphorus, iron and manganese in rice soils. Plant Soil 52, 139–149 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02184556
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02184556