Why some soils have intrinsically high pH level? Is it usually by nature or antthropogenic activities?
How can one reduce that pH level of soil forever?
Thanks Amare .Soil pH can never remain as a permanent property. Neither it can be changed permanently.
Dear Irfan,
The main causes of low pH or High pH are:
Parent Material - Soils are made up of ground up rock and the type of rock dictates the natural pH of the soil. Basic rock like limestone creates alkaline soil and acidic rock, rock containing more silica, creates acidic soil.
Rainfall - Rain leaches basic elements such as calcium and magnesium from the soil. Therefore you will find areas with high rainfall generally have acidic soil while dry areas tend to have alkaline soil. In fact the work for deserts in Arabic is al khali.
Fertilizers - Some fertilizers tend to make the soil acidic. Ammonium urea is an example.
With my best regards
Prof. Bachir ACHOUR
Acid precipitation for industrial and transportation emissions and ammoniated fertilizer addition are the biggest contributors to increased soil acidity. The change in pH will on both atmospheric input and also depend on the practices employed to adjust soil pH liming or sulfuring for instance. If for example our system of production employs large inputs of ammoniated fertilizers that are used year after year at some point the liming of the soil will be necessary. We need to able to understand that the monitoring of soil analysis and tissue analysis gives the ability to optimize soil conditions which can fluctuate based on atmospheric and agricultural inputs.
Soil pH might be high because of parent material, climate (aridity), and raising of salty ground water table.
I don't think we permanently alter soil pH. Because soil pH is a dynamic soil property. It always responds to changes in soil management. Using some management effort, you may raise or reduce soil pH. Once you discontinue your management effort, the pH starts to slightly change.
Dear Irfan, shortest answer to your Queston may be:
"On a smaller scale (under controlled conditions) - YES, but on larger scale, NO."
Dr. Zafar
Dear Irfan,
It is difficult to change it permannently. Soil is a kind of buffer, usually the changes is a long term natural process. You can find many paper has studied on the soil degredation. During the degradation, soil pH changes usually an important indicator for the change. During this soil acidity changes, many cocurrent changes e.g., microbies ,soil physics, soil intervebes. These changes is hot topics for natural study and their aims usually is to find the exact pattern, rules and then possible solution given for future rehabilitation.
wenjie
High soil pH could be pedogenetically involved or anthropogenically induced...
Thanks Anoop for short and precise answers. When you look at some development of spodo-sol in coniferous forest of Europe and also Eastern part of USA, it is the result of accumulation of organic matter on sand texture soils. Needless are low in base forming cations and organic matter from these vegetation are rich in Fe and Al... and easily leached down on coarse texture soils ....
Thanks Amare .Soil pH can never remain as a permanent property. Neither it can be changed permanently.
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