The potassium status of sandy gleyic soddy-podzolic soils under forest, cropland, and fallow

The contents and distribution of water-soluble, exchangeable, and nonexchangeable forms of potassium have been studied in the profiles of sandy gleyic soddy-podzolic soils under forest, intensively used cropland, extensively used cropland, and a 20-year-old fallow. It is shown that soil cultivation leads to a rise in the concentration of mobile potassium compounds. The ratio between nonexchangeable and exchangeable forms of potassium also changes in the cultivated soil. Under the fallow, the restoration of this ratio to the values typical of the soil under natural forest cenoses takes place. Data on the mineralogical composition of the clay and colloidal fractions in the virgin and cultivated soils are presented.