Soil Survey and Land Use Planning Centre, Bihar Agricultural College, Sabour, Bhagalpur, Bihar, 813210.
* Present address: Department of Soil Science, Tirhut College of Agriculture, Dholi, Muzaffarpur, Bihar, 843121.
The variations in total micronutrient appear to be associated with the parent materials, organic carbon, clay and pH of the soils. The values of both the DTPA-Zn and DTPA-Cu have decreased down the depth. The DTPA-Fe is higher in young alluvial soils whereas DTPA-Mn is higher in old alluvial soils indicating its relation with the higher clay content. The total Zn in clay is higher than in the associated soils, whereas total Cu shows almost similar values with the associated soils. The total Fe is higher and total Mn is lower in the clay fraction than the whole soils. All the micronutrient cations (Zn, Fe and Mn) except Cu are higher inferruginous nodules than in the CaCO3-concretions. The total Zn is highest in concretions followed by clay minerals.
Tal land soils, parent materials, DTPA extraction, micronutrients, concretions, nodules
