Efficacy of Different Extractants to Predict the Bioavailability of Molybdenum in Indian Soils
摘要
Molybdenum (Mo) is essential for plant growth and development. Understanding the relationship between chemically extractable soil Mo and its bioavailability is critical for plant nutrition. Various extractants have been used globally to assess plant-available Mo in soil, but they have provided location-specific results, with a lack of comparative analysis among different methods. The present study compares the efficacy of several recommended extractants to predict Mo content in plants grown on diverse Indian soil types. A pot experiment was conducted at the Indian Council of Agricultural Research - Indian Agricultural Research Institute (ICAR-IARI) in New Delhi to determine the suitability of seven different extractants, i.e. ammonium oxalate, ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA), ammonium bicarbonate + diethylenetriamine penta-acetic acid (AB-DTPA), ammonium acetate, hot water, nitric acid (HNO3), and resin to determine the available Mo in soil using lentil as a test crop. For this purpose, twenty bulk surface soil (0–15 cm) samples were collected from seven different states of India representing major soil orders across the country. The correlation and regression analyses were performed to compare the efficacy of different extractants in predicting the plant Mo content. The extractability of soil Mo with various reagents followed the sequence as ammonium oxalate > AB-DTPA = EDTA > 1 M HNO3 = ammonium acetate = hot water > anion exchange resin. Despite resin extracting the least Mo, it showed the highest correlation (r = 0.64, p < 0.001) with plant Mo content, followed by ammonium oxalate (r = 0.44, p < 0.001), AB-DTPA (r = 0.34, p < 0.01) and hot water (r = 0.29, p < 0.05). Simple regression analysis revealed that resin extractable Mo could explain the variability in plant Mo content to the extent of 45%, followed by ammonium oxalate extractable Mo (R2 = 0.20). Other extractants, like AB-DTPA, hot water, EDTA, 1 M HNO3, and ammonium acetate extractable Mo did not show any significant relationship with plant Mo content. Seven extractants were tested to assess plant-available Mo in soil, out of which anion exchange resin and ammonium oxalate were identified as the most suitable extractants. Molybdenum extracted with anion exchange resin showed a significant positive correlation with plant Mo content. However, high-cost involvement, the time-intensive extraction process, and low detectability hindered its suitability for routine analysis. Ammonium oxalate recorded high Mo extractability, making it a viable alternative but can lead to overestimation in acidic soils. This study highlights the variable extraction efficiency of extractants for plant-available Mo and emphasizes the critical role of important soil properties in influencing Mo bioavailability.