Humus Characterization of Humid Tropical Forest,Tea Garden,and Field Crop Soils of West Bengal,India: Chemical,Potentiometric, and Spectroscopic Methods

Humic acids (HA) and fulvic acids (FA) were extracted from tropical humid forest, tea garden, and field crop soils, and their chemical, potentiometric, and spectrophotometric properties were measured. There was less HA than FA in the cultivated soils. The HAs contained more carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) and had greater C/H ratios but lower O (oxygen)/H (hydrogen) ratios than FAs. Cultivated soils had greater total acidity than the forest soil generally because of both —COOH and phenolic-OH. Molecular weights of HA an FA, estimated from intrinsic viscosities, revealed that cultivation had reasonably reduced the molecular weights. The difference in pH (ΔpH) values, corresponding to three-fourths and one-fourth of the pH at final inflexion point showed that they were polyprotic. The longer time required for stability of greater pH of HAs was related to greater degree of stable coiling. The (E₄/E₆), in general, revealed a greater amount of aliphatic moiety rather than aromatic moiety.