%0 Research Notes
%T Soil properties and distribution of heavy metals and boron within three Greek Histosols
%A Karyotis, Theodore
%A Haroulis, Athanasios
%A Vavoulidou, Evagelia
%A Papadopoulos, Pericles
%D 2000
%J Suo - Mires and peat
%V 51
%N 3
%U http://suo.fi/article/9793
%X Three Greek soil profiles originating mostly from lacustrine deposits in the district of Filippoi (Northern Greece), were studied. These soils have been formed both from organic and inorganic materials that were deposited by precipitation and developed through the action of aquatic organisms. According to Soil Taxonomy (1992), they are classified as Histosols and belong to the suborder of Saprists. The pH of the soil horizons ranged among soil horizons from 6.2 to 7.8. The total soil nitrogen content ranged between 7.5 and 17.0 g kg–1 and the soil organic matter was between 108.7 and 206.4 g kg–1 . Calcium carbonate was detected into ten horizons and ranged between 1.4 and 27.8%, whilst it was not found in five of the examined soil layers. This is suggested to reflect the presence or absence of aquatic organisms, the shells of which contain CaCO3 and enrich soil by means of weathering. Heavy metals extracted by 4 M HNO3 were in the following order Fe>Mn>Zn>Pb>Ni>Cu>Cd, and their average concentrations were 7190, 294, 72.3, 58.2, 33.3, 17.3 and 5.1 µg g–1 , respectively. The distribution of trace elements greatly differs amongst the examined samples and the range of the pseudototal form of Fe was 1873–18550 µg g–1 , of Mn 54.7–585, of Cu 4.5–40, of Zn 22.0–185, of Pb 20.5–143, of Ni 15–64.7 and Cd 3.3–6.9 µg g–1 . The sequentially extracted by Na2 -EDTA, HNO3 and NaOH were found to be the prevailing metal forms. Iron deficiency symptoms have been observed in certain crops, and manganese deficiency was also detected in some maize crops cultivated in slightly alkaline soils. Furthermore, the plant available boron concentration was determined, as deficiency symptoms were observed in some districts cultivated with sugar beets. The distribution was generally not influenced by soil properties, although a weak relationship between organic carbon and boron was found. Measures such as rational water management, tillage practices, and fertilization could be applied towards minimization of soil degradation, micronutrient disorders and optimization of crop productivity.