Lecture 6 Soil-plant interactions

Soil plays a key role in plant growth. Beneficial aspects to plants include providing
physical support, water, heat, nutrients, and oxygen. Mineral nutrients from the soil can
dissolve in water and then become available to plants. Although many aspects of soil are
beneficial to plants, excessively high levels of trace metals (either naturally occurring or
anthropogenically added) or applied herbicides can be toxic to some plants.

The ratio of solids/water/air in soil is also critically important to plants for proper
oxygenation levels and water availability. Too much porosity with air space, such as in
sandy or gravelly soils, can lead to less available water to plants, especially during dry
seasons when the water table is low. Too much water, in poorly drained regions, can lead
to anoxic conditions in the soil, which may be toxic to some plants.

Nutrient Uptake by Plants

Several elements obtained from soil are considered essential for plant growth.
Macronutrients, including C, H, O, N, P, K, Ca, Mg, and S, are needed by plants in
significant quantities. C, H, and O are mainly obtained from the atmosphere or from
rainwater. These three elements are the main components of most organic compounds,
such as proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, and nucleic acids. The other six elements (N, P,
K, Ca, Mg, and S) are obtained by plant roots from the soil and are variously used for
protein synthesis, chlorophyll synthesis, energy transfer, cell division, enzyme reactions,
and homeostasis (the process regulating the conditions within an organism).

Micronutrients are essential elements that are needed only in small quantities, but can still
be limiting to plant growth since these nutrients are not so abundant in nature.
Micronutrients include iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), boron (B), molybdenum (Mo),
chlorine (Cl), zinc (Zn), and copper (Cu). There are some other elements that tend to aid
plant growth but are not absolutely essential.

Micronutrients and macronutrients are desirable in particular concentrations and can be

detrimental to plant growth when concentrations in soil solution are either too low
(limiting) or too high (toxicity). Mineral nutrients are useful to plants only if they are in
an extractable form in soil solutions, such as a dissolved ion rather than in solid mineral.
Many nutrients move through the soil and into the root system as a result of concentration
gradients, moving by diffusion from high to low concentrations. However, some nutrients
are selectively absorbed by the root membranes, enabling concentrations to become
higher inside the plant than in the soil.