Soil Factors Preventing Revegetation of a Denuded Area Near an Abandoned Zinc Smelter in Oklahoma

Watkins & Rice (1974) concluded that the denuded area probably remained bare because of the high concentrations of cadmium and zinc combined with the secondary effects of low pH. In the present study, calcium was found to be about twice as high in concentration in the control. Amounts of exchang...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of applied ecology 1975-04, Vol.12 (1), p.337-342
Main Authors: Pancholy, Sunil K., Rice, Elroy L., Turner, Jack A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acid soils
Dehydrogenases
Forest soils
Nitrification
Nitrogen
Smelters
Soil bacteria
Soil samples
Soil water
Zinc
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Summary:Watkins & Rice (1974) concluded that the denuded area probably remained bare because of the high concentrations of cadmium and zinc combined with the secondary effects of low pH. In the present study, calcium was found to be about twice as high in concentration in the control. Amounts of exchangeable ammonium nitrogen were about the same but the concentration of nitrate was much higher in the control. This was positively correlated with the higher counts of nitrifiers in the control plot and indicated that the nitrification rate was much reduced in the bare plot. The absence of ammonium nitrogen increase in the bare plot suggested that the ammonification rate was decreased also. In any event, total available nitrogen was lower in the bare plot. Mean numbers of bacteria, fungi and actinomycetes were considerably higher in the control soil, and activities of urease and dehydrogenase were much higher in the control soil. Numbers of Azotobacter were zero in both plots at two different sampling periods.
ISSN:0021-8901
1365-2664
DOI:10.2307/2401736