Comparison of Crop Growth on the Mineralization of Rhizosphere Soil Sulfur.

The effect of plant growth on the mineralization and distribution of soil sulfur (S) fractions in the rhizosphere of organically managed crop plots was studied. Significant differences of sulfur fractions between the rhizosphere and non-rhizosphere were determined in dependent of crop type. This study was conducted to quantify and compare the mineralization of S in soil samples taken from the rhizosphere of selected vegetative crop species and non- rhizosphere soil samples. Air dried soils were packed in Erlenmeyer flasks and incubated at 30^oC for 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks. Each sample was shaken with 5 mM CaCl₂ extracting solution to remove the mineral S and filtered.  The samples were analyzed for SO^2-₄ - S. The amount of SO^2-₄ extracted from the 52 soil samples was quantified, to determine whether soils from the rhizosphere of the selected vegetative crop types have marked effects on the mineralizable S pool. These findings invariably may show that the mineralization of organic sulfur is related to specific crop types. Final analysis and conclusive results will be presented.
Keyword: sulfur mineralization; rhizosphere