THE POTENTIAL ESTIMATION OF SOIL FERTILITY BASED MINERAL TYPES IN PAPALANG AREAS, MAMUJU REGENCY, WEST SULAWESI Ida Suryani (a*) and Christianto Lopulisa (b)
a) Faculty of Agriculture and Technology, Cokroaminoto University Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan KM. 10 Tamalanrea, Makassar 90245, INDONESIA
*idasuryani8311[at]gmail.com
b) Soil Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Hasanuddin University Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan KM. 10 Tamalanrea, Makassar 90245, INDONESIA
Abstract
Commonly mineral is the soil inorganic material composed by various chemical elements. They are become important source of plant nutrients. The research objective is to determine the physical properties of the soil and microscopically identified at the top layer (0-20 cm) and lower layer (20 - 50 cm) including: color, form, mineral shape and size. The material description included: composition of the upper (55%) and lower (35%) of matrix layers consisting: color, absorption, inference color, shape, size and quantity. Determining the types of mineral found and identifying the types of nutrient-carrying minerals to determine the level of soil fertility was held in the Papalang areas, Mamuju Regency, West Sulawesi. The methods in this research is the survey by observing and describing soil profiles in field, laboratory analysis, identifying soil-forming mineral through thin section method used a polarizing microscope. Based the results of mineral analysis, findings about 6 types of minerals were identified as: quartz, Biotite and K-Feldspar is the primary of silicate mineral. The amount of K-Feldspar mineral ranged from 5 - 15%, measuring 0.04 - 0.3 mm. The opaque is an oxide mineral, found in all profiles in the upper and lower layers, about 5 - 15%, with a size of 0.01 - 0.8 mm. Clay is the secondary minerals from alteration of primary minerals at the 35 - 60%. The result of the research showed the potential of soil fertility in the Papalang areas was classified as good.
