EFFECT OF GROWTH AND SUBSEQUENT DECOMPOSITION OF BLUE-GREEN-ALGAE ON THE TRANSFORMATION OF IRON AND MANGANESE IN SUBMERGED SOILS

N2-fixing blue-green algae (Cyanobacteria), besides enriching soils with N and organic carbon, may modify a number of chemical and electro-chemical properties of the soils resulting in a change in availability of some micronutrient elements. Keeping this in view, an experiment was conducted to study the effects of growth and subsequent decomposition of blue-green algae on changes in the different forms of Fe and Mn in four soils under submerged condition. A mixed algal culture containing Anabaena, Nostoc, Cylindrospermum, and Tolypothrix was used as inoculum. It was allowed to grow for 2 months, after which the soils were sequentially extracted with (i) M NH4OAc (pH 7.0), (ii) M K4P2O7, (iii) 0.1 M NH20H.HCI (pH 2.0), (iv) 0.2 M (NH4)2CO4 (pH 3.0) and (v) 0.1 M ascorbic acid to obtain water-soluble plus exchangeable, organically bound, easily reducible, amorphous oxides- and crystalline oxides-bound forms of Fe and Mn, respectively, both during the growth as well as the subsequent in-situ decomposition of the algal biomass in soils. Iron and Mn in the extracts were estimated by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The results showed that growth of blue-green algae in submerged rice soils caused a decrease in the NH4OAc-extractable forms of Fe and Mn with concomitant increases in all the other four determined forms of the elements. Such decreases and/or increases in different forms of Fe and Mn in soils were explained as being due to release of O2, addition of organic matter and liberation of extracellular organic compounds by the blue-green algae during their growth. The decomposition of algal biomass resulted in an increase in the NH4OAc-, K4P2O7- and (NH4)2C2O4-extractable forms of Fe and Mn with a simultaneous decrease in the NH2OH.HCl- and ascorbic acid-extractable forms. Development of strong reducing conditions and formation of organic acids with chelating properties were suggested as being the cause of the above changes. The implication of these changes in the forms of Fe and Mn for the Fe and Mn nutrition of rice plants were discussed.