Author(s)

Florence Otobong Umoh¹, Victor Emmanuel Osodeke¹, Ini Dennis Edem^2*, Gregory Sunday Effiong²

¹Department of Soil Science and Meteorology, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria.
²Department of Soil Science and Land Resources Management, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria.

This study was conducted to determine phosphorus sorption characteristics of five soils from contrasting parent materials in south-eastern Nigeria. The soils were collected from Ikom (basalt), Akamkpa (basement complex), Bende (shale), Amaeke (sand stone) and Umudike (coastal plain sand). The standard P requirements for the soils were calibrated from the sorption curves, and the values were very low ranging from 11.1 mg·kg^-1 in Bende to 60.2 mg·kg^-1 in Ikom. The P maximum sorption capacity determined by the Freundlich and Langmuir models varied with the locations, and ranged from 65.7 mg·kg^-1 in Akamkpa to 516 mg·kg^-1 in Bende for the Freundlich model and from 231 mg·kg^-1 in Akamkpa to 369 mg·kg^-1 in Bende for the Langmuir model. Similarly the P maximum buffering capacity was determined by using the two models. The values varied from 993 mg·kg^-1 in Amaeke to 1180 mg·kg^-1 in Akamkpa with a mean of 1087 mg·kg^-1. The highest bonding energy of P was in Akamkpa with a mean value of 6.05 ml/g and lowest was in Bende with a mean value of 0.76 ml/g. From this study, the P sorption data of the soils conformed better with the Freundlich model than the Langmuir model. Freundlich model is therefore recommended for the soils.

Phosphate, Freundlich, Langmuir, Models, Parent Material, Sorption Isotherm

Umoh, F. , Osodeke, V. , Edem, I. and Effiong, G. (2014) Application of Langmuir and Freundlich Models in Phosphate Sorption Studies in Soil of Contrasting Parent Materials in South-Eastern Nigeria. Open Access Library Journal, 1, 1-9. doi: 10.4236/oalib.1100989.