سارا ملاعلی عباسیان

Potassium (K+) and nitrogen (N, as the form of ammonium (NH4+)) are the major nutrients for plant growth. Although there have been a number of studies on the kinetic fixation of potassium and ammonium ions in soils and clays, however, investigations on the kinetics of competitive fixation of these ions have been few, if any, especially by taking in to account silt component of soils. In this study, kinetics of potassium and ammonium fixation were examined in the silt components of several soil samples. The results revealed that considerable amounts of K+ and in lesser amounts, NH4+ ions were fixed by silt components of the soils. Potassium fixation was strongly preferred over ammonium. To describe the fixation kinetics, seven mathematically models were evaluated. A comparison of the models showed that pseudo-second order equation properly described the fixation of these ions by the silt components.