Responses of microbial components of the rhizosphere to plant management strategies in a semiarid rangeland

Summary Easily soluble heavy-metal fractions from different soils, a garbage-sewage sludge compost and peat were extracted by EUF. Blanks were determined by extracting distilled water. As the rubber seal of the extraction chamber contained Zn, the obtained Zn values were not reliable. The relative standard deviations of extracted micronutrients were 29.1% for Fe and 20.5% for Mn, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Pb, Cd and Cr were not only found in the filters but also in the extracts.The extraction of CrIII and CrVI solutions showed that CrVI mainly migrated into the anode extract. CrIII was found mainly in the cathode filter and cathode extract, a smaller part however was obviously oxidized to CrVI and migrated into the anode extract. Consequently, CrIII and CrVI in soils could not be distinguished unequivocally by EUF.The amounts of Zn, Cu, Pb and Cd extracted by EUF from various substrates were small compared with the quantities extracted by 2N HCl. The heavy metal contents of the leaves were mostly in the order of those of the EUF extract.Several vineyard soils as well as peat were mixed with increasing quantities of Grünsalz (green salt), a fertilizer consisting mainly of iron sulphate. High amounts of Grünsalz (100–200 g/200 g soil) were necessary to raise soluble Fe in calcareous soils. In peat, however, small Grünsalz additions (1 g/50 g peat) were sufficient. Soluble Mn and Cu increased too when Grünsalz was added to soil or peat. These results give valuable information on how grapevine chlorosis can be reduced by the use of Grünsalz or mixtures of peat and Grünsalz.