Evaluation of Soil Oxide Mineralogy in Different Bedrock Lithologies in the Southern Guinea Savannah of Nigeria
Agriculture has very important social and economic footprint in Africa. Its soil resource is however threatened by degradation resulting from mismanagement, due to lack of knowledge on important soil functional properties such as mineralogy, which impact many soil processes. This study was theref...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Bulgarian Soil Science Society
2020-12-01
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| Series: | Bulgarian Journal of Soil Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.bsss.bg/issues/Issue2_2020/BJSS_2020_2_4.pdf |
| Summary: | Agriculture has very important social and economic footprint in Africa. Its soil
resource is however threatened by degradation resulting from mismanagement, due to lack of
knowledge on important soil functional properties such as mineralogy, which impact many
soil processes. This study was therefore conducted to access variations in soil oxide
mineralogy in soils formed from differing bedrock lithologies. Soil sampling was carried out
on soils from three different bedrock types; basement complex rocks, recent alluvium, and
Nupe sandstone in Kwara state, southern Guinea Savannah of Nigeria. Data was subjected to
analysis of variance to determine significant differences in treatment means (p<0.05), and
correlation analysis was performed to determine relationships between measured variables.
Elemental oxide composition of soils from the different bedrock materials were found
to be significantly different. Soils from all three bedrock types had very high amounts of
silica by mass (>80 %). The highest mean percentage of 90.59 was recorded in recent
alluvium-derived samples, while the least value of 80.75 % was recorded in basement
complex-derived samples. Aluminum and iron oxides were the most saturating metal oxides
in all the bedrock types, and significantly higher values of 5.65 % and 2.71 % for Al2O3 and
Fe2O3 respectively were recorded in basement complex-derived soils. Dissimilar trends of
mineral oxide relationships were observed in soils from the different lithologies, which are
likely a result of bedrock characteristic, environmental and hydrologic factors. The
relationships established between oxide minerals in this study could serve as a foundation for
subsequent investigations into mineral interactions in the soils. |
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| ISSN: | 2534-8787 2367-9212 |