Abstract
Background and aims
Nickel (Ni) is essential to plants and Ni deficiencies have been proven in Oxisols of Brazil and scattered crops and soils in the US. However, little research has been conducted to assess the spatial variability and Ni deficiency more widely. By adding Ni to the analysis suite at a commercial soil testing lab, extractable Ni data was collected on a larger scale than any survey to date. The data were compared to published critical soil test levels to estimate to what, if any, extent Ni deficiencies exist. The large area from which the samples originated allowed for a preliminary assessment of spatial variability, and the suite of other tests performed by the lab allowed for correlations between Ni and other soil parameters to be explored.
Methods
37,504 soil samples were collected using generally accepted soil sampling procedures from a region representing approximately 45,600 ha across Wisconsin and Northern Illinois and submitted to a commercial lab for fertility analysis. Samples were dried at 53 °C, pulverized, and sieved to 2 mm. Available Ni was extracted with Mehlich III (M3) solution and analyzed by ICP-OES.
Results
The M3-extractable Ni results correlate with estimated CEC and M3-extractable Ca and Mg. Nickel results show distinct population differences between soils of Wisconsin and Illinois. Interpreting Ni levels by existing published criteria suggests that Ni supplementation could cause perennial ryegrass yield responses in 2.4 to 99.9% of soil samples, depending upon the geographic origin of the samples and which of three critical Ni levels was used.
Conclusions
Soils of the U.S. are likely to cause Ni deficiency. This study will lay the groundwork for a fuller understanding of soil Ni availability and concentrations and justify further efforts to develop critical soil test levels for M3-extractable Ni under a variety of crop** systems.
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Data availability
The shinyapp.io data explorer applied to the Wisconsin and Illinois M3 data is available at https://rockriverlab.shinyapps.io/RRLSoilNiExplorer/
Abbreviations
- M3:
-
Mehlich III
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Rock River Laboratory, Inc. for the use of their facilities and personnel in this study. We would also like to thank Jacob Karlen for building the data explorer tool to visualize the relationships among the data. We are grateful to Dr. Matt Ruark for an early in-house review of a draft manuscript.
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Barak conceived the concept and design of this work and Sawyer organized the logistics, analysis, and data collection. Data analysis and the initial drafting of the manuscript were conducted by Sawyer and Barak commented and edited all versions of the manuscript. Both authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
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Sawyer, D.C., Barak, P. Mehlich III predicts that soils in Wisconsin and Illinois may cause nickel deficiency in crops. Plant Soil 497, 523–534 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06411-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-023-06411-x