148 

 locations. At a Gainesville, Florida, collecting station, they reported 

 that bulk precipitation (open rainfall collectors) for 1978-79 con- 

 tained a volume-weighted concentration of 0.0352 meq of sulfate S/ 

 liter. Rainfall data from the Beef Research Unit from 1976 through 

 1979 showed a mean annual rainfall of 120 cm. Of this, 65% or 78.3 cm 

 fell from April through September, the period of active growth of 

 bahiagrass. If the rainfall at the Beef Research Unit contained the 

 same S concentration as that in Gainesville (it would probably be less), 

 we would expect approximately 4.4 kg/ha of S deposited during the grow- 

 ing season. 



Estimated evapotranspiration for the Jacksonville, Florida, area is 

 69.3 cm for April through September (0.385 cm/day) and 100 cm annually 

 (L. C. Hammond, personal communication). Therefore, 88.5% of the 

 natural rainfall during the growing season was removed by evapotrans- 

 piration. Specific evapotranspiration data were not available for a 

 well-fertilized actively growing bahiagrass sward, but, no doubt, it 

 would be higher than the values presented here. Using these data, we 

 can estimate that approximately 3.9 kg/ha of rainfall S would remain in 

 the surface soil or be taken up by the plant through mass flow. The 

 remainder would probably be leached beyond the rooting zone or immo- 

 bilized by microorganisms. 



Jones et al. (1979) estimated that an average of 8.4 kg/ha/yr of 

 atmospheric S was absorbed directly by the soil in South Carolina from 

 1973 to 1977. This value was based on data from 15 locations, and it 

 continually increased from 2.8 kg/ha in 1973 to 13.0 kg/ha in 1977. 

 Atmospheric S varied significantly with season of the year in South 

 Carolina as it does in Florida. Specific atmospheric data are not 



