Origin and properties of humus in the subsoil of irrigated rice paddies

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted to estimate the amount of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) leached from the submerged plow layer of rice paddies during the cultivation period and its accumulation in the subsoil. Organic matter in the leachate was fractionated using insoluble polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) which can adsorb aromatic components having hydroxyl and/or carboxyl groups. Total amount of DOC leached throughout the growth period of rice plant corresponded to ca. 0.5% of total-C in the plow layer soil sample (total C, 17.8 g kg^-1) irrespective of the presence of rice plant, and the PVP-adsorbed fraction accounted for 34–43% of it. The amount of DOC in the leachate decreased by more than 50%, and that of the PVP-adsorbed and non-adsorbed fractions decreased by 79–82 and 45–47% by passing through the subsoil packed in the glass columns, respectively. The decreases were considered to be due to the adsorption to the subsoil, since a corresponding increase was observed in the total carbon content in the subsoil. Successive extraction of organic matter from the subsoil before and after the rice growth period with water, 0.25 M NaNSON and 0.1 m Na₄P₂O₇ (pH 7.0) solutions showed that the amount of organic carbon adsorbed on PVP mainly increased in the Na₄P₂O₇ (pH 7.0)-extractable fractions during the rice growth period, while the amount of organic carbon non-adsorbed on PVP increased in all the fractions extracted. These results suggested that the PVP-adsorbed fractions in the leachate were adsorbed to the subsoil mainly by coordinate bonding while the PVP-non-adsorbed fractions were adsorbed by physical adsorption, weak hydrogen bonding, ion bonding, and coordinate bonding.