Water-soluble organic materials in paddy soil ecosystem

Abstract

A column experiment was conducted to analyse the composition of organic materials in the leachate from the plow layer and their fate in the subsoil. Water-soluble organic materials in the leachate were fractionated by insoluble polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and ion exchange resins. The content of total organic carbon (TOC) in the leachate increased by the addition of rice straw (RS) to the plow layer soil sample. The leachate contained a constant amount of PVP-adsorbed Fraction, while that of the PVP-non-adsorbed Fraction changed during the 45 day incubation period. In the fractionation using ion exchange resins, the fraction adsorbed onto the anion exchange resin was the major one.

By the connection of a subsoil column to the plow layer soil column with RS, the TOC content in the leachate decreased by percolation into the subsoil sample. In the Anjo soil sample (Yellow Soil), the decrease occurred throughout the incubation period, and about 90% of the PVP-adsorbed Fraction in the leachate decreased by percolation into the subsoil sample. In the Fukushima soil sample (Gray Lowland Soil), the TOC content decreased in the early and middle periods of incubation, while in the late period the decrease was negligible. This decrease of the TOC content by percolation into the subsoil sample was mainly due to retention in the subsoil sample of the Anjo soil, while in the Fukushima soil sample it was due to decomposition and retention. It was considered that easily decomposable organic materials like organic acids were decomposed in the early to middle periods of incubation, while in the late period the contents of such substances in the leachate from the plow layer soil sample with RS were small and the decrease of TOC was negligible.