Introduction--What is Potassium?

Potassium is a vital mineral that is essential to the growth of plants by speeding up the enzymatic process. It helps the plants survive severe weather and is in charge of osmoregulation (Osmoregulation is amount of water). When a plant is put in an ecosystem with a higher-osmolarity the potassium accumultates in the cell and helps the plant deal with the problem.  Similarly, if the plant is exposed to a lower-osmoarlity environment the potassium leaves the cell to allow more room for water. 

There are 3 main types of potassium in the soil--unavailable potassium, slowly available potassium, and readily available potassium. 

Unavailable Potassium--> This form of potassium is held in micas and feldspars and cannot be used by plants

Slowly AvailablePotassium--> This form of potassium is stuck between layers of clay and most of it is unavaiable to plants. This can transform into both readily available potassium and unavailable potassium. 

Readily Available Potassium--> This form of potassium is the potassium in exchangable sites on clay minerals. Plants are able to use this form of potassium. 

In this experiment we mainly focused on readily available potassium.  Available potassium is found in the clay portion of the soil.  This is the form of potassium that can actually be used by plants.  The amount of clay can be found using a soil texture test which seperates the 3 components of soil--Sand, Silt, and Clay.  Soil texture is an important soil characteristic that drives crop production and field management. Texture drives crop production by determining the rate at which water drains through saturated soil. It influences how much water is available to the plant. Well drained soils have good soil aeration. Soil aeration means that the soil contains air that is similar to atmospheric air. Atmospheric air is conducive to healthy root growth and it allows the crops to grow in a more comfortable environment and it allows the roots to grow with more room. Certian soils like , clay holds a better water capacity for roots to flourish in. It gives you a result of a healthy crop. The class of a soil is  broken up into classifications of sand , silt , and clay.

Nutrient availability is the availibility of nutrients bieng able to be used by living organisms. You can contribute to nutrient availibility for organisms by adjusting the soil pH. You can adjust soil pH by adding either stronger acids or adding stronger bases to your soil. You can use phosphoric acid to lower your soil pH and potassium hydroxide to raise your pH.

 Since potassium is such an important part of the ecosystem we have decided to figure out if there is a correlation between the percent of clay in soil and potassium levels.

Works Cited

1: "Potassium for crop production" George Rehm , Micheal Schmitt (2002) http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/cropsystems/dc6794.html

2: "Potassium , A  key Nutrient for Plant Growth" James McAfee

 http://jimmcafee.tamu.edu/files/potassium%20a%20key%20nutrient%20for%20plant%20growth.pdf