Soil Organic Matter, Mineral Nutrients and Heavy Metals Status of Some Selected Regions of Bangladesh

A study was undertaken to evaluate the status of organic matter, mineral nutrients and heavy metals content in seven different soils from fourteen selected regions of Bangladesh. The location were BAU farm, Sutiakhali, Ishardi, Lalpur, Dumuria, Kotalipara, Asasuni, Chorfasion, Kaligonj, Botiaghata, Madhupur, Tangail sadar, Chakaria and Moheskhali. Forty two surface soils (0-15 cm depth) were collected from 14 regions (3 samples from each region) of Bangladesh during November-December, 2009. The results obtained from this study showed that the organic matter of these soils very low to very high (0.65 % in Madhupur to 28.24 % in Dumuria) and the total N content of soil followed the same trend of organic matter ranging 0.056 to 1.638 % in Madhupur and Dumuria region, respectively. The available P and S in the top of soils ranged from 3.77 µg g-1 in Moheskhali to 17.28 µg g-1 in BAU farm and 13.40 µg g-1 in Madhupur to 420.32 µg g-1 in Moheskhali, respectively. In the context of micro nutrients, the maximum available Zn, Cu, Fe and Mn were found 6.43 µg g-1 in Dumuria, 8.06 µg g-1 in Chakaria, 346.12 µg g-1 in Madhupur and 83.5 µg g-1 in Madhupur, respectively. whereas the lowest amount of these micronutrients were found 1.22 µg g-1 in Botiaghata, 0.2 µg g-1 in Dumuria, 7.62 µg g-1 in Ishardi and 2.39 µg g-1 in Lalpur, respectively. Possible contamination of the studied soils by heavy metals was not significantly observed. The OM, total N and other nutrients were found to be the dominant factors influencing not only the availability of macro and micro nutrients and heavy metals but also the quality of soil