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Soil Properties Affecting the Sorption of Atmospheric Ammonia¹

ABSTRACT

At controlled atmospheric-level ammonia concentrations, ammonia sorption from the atmosphere was weakly correlated with increasing cation exchange capacity and percent clay. Alteration of organic matter content and soil acidity produced only slight changes in sorption rates. These data indicate that lack of bonding sites per se does not limit the sorption rate. In air dry soil the major portion of the sorption occurs in the uppermost 0.5 cm. Sorption rates were closely related to increasing air permeability and moisture content. Since atmospheric ammonia concentration, air velocity across the soil surface, and temperature also strongly influence sorption rates, it is concluded that sorption of atmospheric ammonia by soils is primarily governed by those factors which effect the rate of supply of ammonia to the soil surface and the fraction of the ammonia molecules which are actually captured.

¹ Paper of the Journal Series, New Jersey Agr. Exp. Sta., Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J. Presented to Western Society of Soil Science, Los Angeles, Calif., June 1967. This study was supported by Regional Project NE-39 Soil Nitrogen.

² Assistant Professor, Center for Ecological Research, Dept. of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. The author acknowledges with appreciation the assistance of the late Dr. E. R. Purvis with whom this study was initiated.

Received for publication April 17, 1969. Accepted for publication June 12, 1969.