Aluminium mobility at an acid sensitive site with high S-deposition

Summary

Soil water at an acid-sensitive forested catchment in southwestern Poland has been studied for four years. Median base saturation (BS) is only 5% in the podzol B-horizons. Very low pH values in the soil water from the O-horizons (10- and 90 percentiles pH 3.5 and 4.3) increased to a typical median pH in the B-horizons of 4.4, mainly by release of inorganic labile aluminium (Ali). Median concentrations in the B horizons were 3.4mg Ali L-1. Al-soil/soilwater interactions were studied over a large span of sulphate concentrations resulting from both a generally decreasing S-deposition during the last decades and an increase in precipitation during the study period. These changes led sulphate to leach from the mineral soil. Aluminium mobilisation is better described by jurbanite- than by gibbsite solubility. For the soils with aluminium saturation (AlS) >90%, there is a tendency that the concentration of Al3+ decreases less than divalent base cations with a decrease in SO42- concentration. This causes the critical load molar ratio (RCL={Al3+}/{Ca2++Mg2+}) to increase with a decrease in the sulphate concentration in soil water, which is not in agreement with a simple cation-exchange model.