Soil humic fractions of red ferrallitic soils as influenced by vegetational types

Abstract

Humic and fulvic acids (HA and FA) extracted from evergreen, semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests, and plantations of teak, eucalypt and rubber soils belonging to red ferrallitic type of Kerala were quantified and characterised by UV and IR spectroscopies. The HA and FA conlenis were relatively higher in the natural forests. They differed significantly between vegetational types and varied in chemical composition. The IR spectra of HA and FA were very weak and their aliphatic groups were lower in eucalypt soils.