Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate Council 



of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the 



Requirements fcr the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 



THE SULFUR FERTILITY STATUS OF FLORIDA SOILS 



By 

 Charles Clifford Mitchell, Jr. 

 December 1980 



Chairman: W. G. Blue 



Major Department: Soil Science 



Extractable and total sulfur (S) in 29 soil profiles from central 

 and north Florida were measured and compared to selected soil proper- 

 ties. The surface horizons of most Florida Ultisols and the entire 

 profile to 200 cm of Soodosols and Entisols contained less than 6 ppm 

 of 0.01 M Ca(H. > ?0 / ) 7 -2H 9 extractable sulfate S. Total S was highly 

 correlated with organic C (r = 0.89) and total M (r = C.95) in the sur- 

 face horizons of all soils and with Na-pyrophosphate soluble AI 

 (r = 0.86) in the spodic horizons of Spodosols. Both extractable and 

 total S were significantly correlated with cd trate-dithionite soluble 

 AI and Fe in the surface horizons of Ultisols. The argiilic horizons 

 of Ultisols contained an average of 33 ppm extractable sulfate S which 

 represented over &0% of the total S. Extractable sulfate 5 represented 

 less Chan 7% of the total S in the entire profiles of Entisols and 



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