Soils as boron source for plants

Boron (B) is one essential micronutrient required by plants for their normal development and growth. However, throughout the history of this element research, it has been established that concentration ranges in the soil solution causing either deficiency or toxicity symptoms in plants are smaller than for any other element; in addition to this situation, those ranges change according to the plant specie; that is, a concentration interval of B can be normal for an specific type of plant, while for others can be either toxic or deficient, which has had a profound influence for a better knowledge of B behavior in soils. Soil factors affecting availability of B to plants are pH, texture, moisture, temperature, content and quality of organic matter, and content and kind of clay. The B concentration of soil solution is generally controlled by reactions with B adsorbing surfaces involving aluminium and iron oxides, magnesium hydroxide, clay minerals, calcium carbonate, and organic matter. These B adsorption reactions can be described using either empirical models (the Langmuir adsorption isotherm equation, the Freundlich adsorption isotherm equation, and the phenomenological Keren model) or chemical models (the constant capacitance model, the triple layer model, and the quadruple layer model) that can use changing conditions of solution pH and B concentration. These models can also be used to describe B desorption reactions for non-hysteretic soils. A number of analytical techniques have been used for determining B concentrations in different kind of materials being the spectrophotometric methods, that use azomethine-H, the most extensively applied to analysis of soil samples. The purpose of this article is to examine all advances that have contributed to understand the fundamental behavior of B in soils and the direct impact on its management in agricultural systems for the sustainable production