Impact of acid effluent from Kawah Ijen crater lake on irrigated agricultural soils: Soil chemical processes and plant uptake

Volcanogenic contamination of irrigation water, caused by effluent from the hyperacid Ijen crater lake, has severely affected the properties of agricultural soils in East Java, Indonesia. From a comparison of acidified topsoil with subsoil and with top- and subsoil in a reference area, we identified processes responsible for changes in soil and soil solution chemistry induced by acid irrigation water, with emphasis on the nutrients Ca, Mg, Fe, and Mn, and on Al, which may become phytotoxic under acid conditions in soils. Compositional data for bulk soil composition and selective extractions with 1 M KCl and 0.2 M acid ammonium oxalate are used in a mass balance approach to specify element fluxes, including uptake by rice plants. The results show that input via irrigation water has produced an increase in the total aluminum content in the affected topsoil, which is of the same order of magnitude as the increase in labile Al. High bioavailability of Al, as reflected by concentrations in KCl extracts, is consistent with elevated concentrations observed in rice plants. In contrast, and despite the high input via irrigation water, Ca and Mg concentrations have decreased in all measured soil fractions through dissolution of amorphous phases and minerals, and through competition of Al for adsorption sites on the exchange complex and plant roots. Strong leaching is also evident for Fe and especially Mn. In terms of the overall mass balance of the topsoil, plant uptake of Al, Ca, Fe, Mg and Mn is negligible. If the use of acid irrigation would be stopped and the soil pH were to increase to values above 4.5, the observed phytotoxicity of Al will be halted. However, crops may then become fully dependent on the input from irrigation water or fertilizer for essential elements, due to the previous removal from the topsoil through leaching.