Alaeddin ELFOUGHI¹, Szilveszter BENEDEK^1*, Laila M. H. ABUSRIWIL², Hosam E. A. F. BAYOUMI HAMUDA^2,3 & György FÜLEKY^1
1Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Szent István University, Gödöllő, Páter Károly utca 1., 2100 Hungary, *E-mail: szil.benedek@gmail.com
²Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Szent István University, Gödöllő, Hungary
³Institute of Environmental Protection Engineering, Óbuda University, Budapest, Hungary

EFFECTS OF COMPOST APPLICATION ON NUTRIENT SUPPLY AND HEAVY METAL SORPTION OF SOIL

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Analyzing the effects of compost application on chemical and microbiological soil properties, pot experiment was conducted with mixtures of a sandy-loam soil and compost originated from plant residues, including 0, 2.5, 5 and 10 v/v% compost, in four replicates. Ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) was seeded in the pots, which were set up at 20°C in climate room by a daily irrigation to field capacity. The plants were cut at the 4^th and the 7^th week after seeding. Finally plant biomass and N, P and K content of plants was measured. Also chemical and microbiological properties of the soil-compost mixtures were determined. Same experiment was also carried out after 6 months incubation of soil-compost mixtures. During the incubation process the hot water soluble C and N content was determined monthly. The results reported an increase in growth and nutrient uptake of ryegrass plants at higher rate of compost application. Similar tendency could be detected between microbiological properties and compost application rate. These effects are more dominant when incubated soil-compost mixtures were used. Change of easily soluble C and N content during the incubation process was recognized by a decreasing tendency in case of C and an increasing in case of N. Furthermore the experiment was established to study Cu and Zn sorption capacity of the soil-compost mixtures. It was found that Cu and Zn fixation rose substantially as the quantity of compost increased. Increasing rates of compost reduced the availability of the heavy metals, however the availability of Cu was higher than that of Zn. Application of hot water extraction method showed that the soluble Cu and Zn increased by higher compost application rate.