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International Journal of Scientific Research in Knowledge (IJSRK), 1(9), pp. 358-362, 2013 Available online at http://www.ijsrpub.

com/ijsrk ISSN: 2322-4541; 2013 IJSRPUB http://dx.doi.org/10.12983/ijsrk-2013-p358-362

Full Length Research Paper Studies of Physicochemical Properties of Rhizosphere of Elaeis guinensis in Ayingba
Stephen Emmauel*, Oguche A. Oguche
Department of Microbiology, Kogi State University, Anyigba, Kogi State, Nigeria *Corresponding author: psychsea07@gmail.com, +234-8036347036
Received 17 July 2013; Accepted 18 August 2013

Abstract. The physicochemical properties of rhizosphere of oil palm (Elaeis guinensis) were studied for a period of 28 days. Soil samples were collected weekly from five Faculties of Kogi State University, Anyigba namely Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (FAS), Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FAH), Faculty of Law (FL), Faculty of Natural Sciences (FNS) and Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) and analysed for pH, moisture, organic carbon, organic matter content, nitrogen and available phosphorus. The pH ranged from 6.070.18 to 6.470.09. The moisture content, organic carbon, organic matter content and phosphorus were high. There were significant differences (p<0.05) in pH, organic carbon, organic matter content, nitrogen and phosphorus concentration of the soil samples. However, there was no significant difference in the moisture content of the soil sample analysed. The results indicate that the oil palm rhizosphere soil is fertile and may favour the growth of soil organisms. Key words: rhizosphere, Elaeis guinensis, physicochemical properties, soil organisms

1. INTRODUCTION Oil palm (Elaeis guinensis) originated from the tropical rain forest region of West Africa (Poku, 2002) and is grown widely in West Africa, Indonesia and Malaysia. In Nigeria, the oil palm is found virtually in every part of the country with large plantations in rural communities in the South-Eastern, South South, South West and the Middle Belt states of the country. Oil palm is an economic tree. Almost every part of the tree is useful (Collins, 1979). Palm oil, palm wine and brooms are some of the products of the oil palm. Its increasing use in commercial food industries in parts of the world is buoyed by its cheap pricing (United States Department of agriculture, 2007), high oxidative stability of the refined products and high level of natural oxidants (Sundram et al., 2003). The rhizosphere denotes the region of soil influenced by plant roots (Giri et al., 2005). It is the centre of intense biological activity due to food supply provided by root exudates. Bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, protozoa and algae compete for water, nutrients and space in the rhizosphere. Soil properties play an important role in the composition and structure of plants. Buyer et al. (1989) reported that soil chemistry and pH are influenced by the activities of microbes in the rhizosphere. According to Gould and Walker (1999), pH affects nutrients availability, toxicity and microbial activity. Larcher (1980) reported that acidic soils (with pH< 6) have low nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. Marschner (1986) is of the opinion that in basic soils (pH> 8), total nitrogen and available nitrogen becomes limited

while zinc, copper, manganese and iron tend to be deficient. Wright (1992) and Sala et al. (1997) are of the view that responses of different plants to environmental stress may be related to the differences in their utilization of water in the environment. Lavers and field (2006) reported that water availability is an important environmental factor in plants growth. Edema et al. (2011) are of the view that growing roots of plants could create pores in the soil which might enhance water infilteration The soil organic matter plays a major role in the formation of stable soil, its aeration and water holding capacity. Craswell and Lefroy (2001) reported that soil organic matter encompasses the soil biota and plant and animal tissues at varying stages of decomposition. Anyigba is an emerging urban town where oil palm is grown extensively. The vegetative nature of the campus of Kogi State University is influenced by the relative abundance of the oil palm compared to other economic trees like the cashew. Most studies on oil palm have focused on the products and impact of the products on the environment (Poku, 2002, Okwute and Isu, 2007a, Okwute and Isu, 2007b). Literature on the micro flora of the oil palm and the physicochemical properties of the soil surrounding its roots are lacking. Therefore, this study was undertaken with a view to assess and provide information on the physicochemical properties of the rhizosphere soil of the oil palm.

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Emmauel and Oguche Studies of Physicochemical Properties of Rhizosphere of Elaeis guinensis in Ayingba

2. MATERIALS AND METHODS 2.1. Study area description The experiment was conducted on the campus of the Kogi State University, Anyigba, Nigeria. Anyigba lies between latitudes 70 291 North and longitude 70 111 East and falls within the rain forest belt of Nigeria with an annual mean rainfall of about 1600mm. The average temperature of the experimental area is 25oC (Stephen and Egene, 2012). 2.2. Sample collection Soil samples were collected from rhizosphere of young oil palm from five faculties of Kogi state university Anyingba namely: Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (FAS), Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FAH), Faculty of Law (FL), Faculty of Natural Sciences (FNS) and Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS). The soil samples were collected from the rhizosphere using soil auger from a depth of 10 cm -15cm into a polythene bag and transported to the laboratory. Soil samples were collected weekly for a period of one month 2.3. Laboratory/ statistical methods pH of the soil was determined at ambient temperature using glass electrode pH and conductivity meter (Hannia, Italy) in 1:1 water to soil ratio. Nitrogen was determined by the micro Kjedahl method as described by Ibitoye (2006). Phosphorus was determined by the Murphy and Riley (1962) method. The ignition method of Akinsanmi (1975) was used to determine the organic matter content while the dry weight method (Tropical development Institute, 1984) was used to determine the moisture content. Descriptive statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed using procedure of SPSS version 16 (2007). Experimental precision achieved was reported at p0.05 level. 3. RESULTS The physicochemical properties of the rhizosphere soil samples are presented in table 1. pH ranged from 6.07 0.06 to 6.47 0.09. Faculty of law had the highest pH value followed by Faculty of Social Sciences. Statistical analysis indicated that there were significant differences (p<0.05) in the pH between the samples from Faculty of Agricultural Sciences (FAS),

Faculty of Arts and Humanities (FAH), Faculty of Law (FL), Faculty of Natural Sciences (FNS) and Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS). The highest moisture content was observed in FNS (17.33 3.76%) followed by FSS (13.89 4.17%) and FAH (12.26 1.96%). The lowest value was observed in FAS (8.98 1.33%). There were no significant differences in the moisture contents of the soil samples analysed. The organic carbon ranged from 1.78 0.03% to 2.61 0.09%. FAS had the highest organic carbon (2.61 0.09%) followed by FSS (2.52 0.07%) and FNS (2.49 0.05%). FL had the least value of organic carbon (1.78 0.03%). There were significant differences (p<0.05) in the organic carbon of the soil samples analysed. The organic matter content in all soil samples analysed were high. The highest organic matter was observed in FAS (4.50 0.16%) while the lowest value was obtained from the soil samples obtained from FL (3.06 0.05%). There were significant differences (p<0.05) in the organic matter content of the rhizosphere soil samples obtained from FAS, FAH, FL, FNS, and FSS. Table 1 also revealed the nitrogen and available phosphorus of the rhizosphere soil samples. The nitrogen concentrations were low in all samples. There were significant differences (p<0.05) in the nitrogen concentration between the samples obtained from FAS, FAH, FL, FNS and FSS. Phosphorus concentration was higher in FAS than samples from FSS, FNS, FL and FAH. The phosphorus concentration ranged from 5.17 0.01ppm to 12.23 0.34ppm. There were significant differences (p<0.05) in the phosphorus concentration between the samples obtained from FAS, FAH, FL, FNS and FSS. 4. DISCUSSION The result of the study indicated that pH of the rhizosphere soil of oil palm (Elaeis guinensis) is almost neutral. This may be due to plant-microbial interaction (Giri et al., 2005; Stephen et al., 2013). Lorestani et al. (2011) reported that roots of plants influence the physical and chemical properties of soil. The moisture content of the rhizosphere soil of the oil palms was high. This serves to protect the roots from drying and allow for expansion and penetration of roots into the soil as well as uptake of water and nutrients from the soil (Edema et al., 2011).

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International Journal of Scientific Research in Knowledge (IJSRK), 1(9), pp. 358-362, 2013

Table 1: Physicochemical characteristics of rhizosphere of oil palm (mean standard error of mean)

Values are means of quadruple results standard error. a,b,c,d: means denoted by different superscripts along the same row are significantly (p<0.05) different. FAS: Faculty of Agricultural sciences, FAH: Faculty of Arts and Humanities, FL: Faculty of Law, FNS: Faculty of Natural Sciences, FSS: Faculty of Social sciences, MOIST: moisture, O.C: organic carbon, O.M.C: Organic matter contents, N: Nitrogen, P: Available phosphorus, ppm: parts per million.

The organic carbon and organic matter content were high in all samples. This may be due to release of exudates from roots of the oil palm. Mwegoha (2008) observed that rhizosphere of plants has the ability to self-engineer the local biogeochemistry of soil-pH, moisture, organic content as a result of their exudates. The nitrogen content of the rhizosphere soil samples was low. This may be due to the fact that nitrogen is essential for plant growth (Agbogidi and Enujeke, 2012) as well as growth of microorganisms present in the rhizosphere (Ayotamumo et al., 2006). The available phosphorus was high in all the soil samples. The reason could be due to high organic matter content observed in the soil samples (Stephen and Egene, 2012) and presence of reduced conditions in the rhizosphere of the oil palm that brought some phosphorus into solution (Ayotamumo et al., 2006). 5. CONCLUSION The results of this study show that rhizosphere of oil palm has close to neutral pH, high organic carbon, organic matter content and available phosphorus. This is an indication of a fertile environment which may favour the growth of soil organisms, nutrient mineralization and uptake by the plant. REFERENCES Akinsanmi O (1975). Certificate Agricultural Science. Longman, Nigeria. Pp 104-112. Agbogidi, OM, Enujeke, EC (2012). Effects of spent motor oil on physicochemical properties and growth of Arachis hypogaea L. Global Journal of Bio-Science and Biotechnology, 1(1): 71-74. Ayotamuno JM, Kogbara RB, Egwuenum PN (2006). Comparism of corn and Elephant grass in the phytoremediation of petroleum-hydrocarbon contaminated agricultural soil in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria. Journal of Food Agriculture and Environment, 4 (3&4): 218-222.

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JS, Sikora LJ, Chaney RL (1989). Rhizosphere: A new growth medium for the study of ecology. Biol. Fertil. Soils, 8: 97-101. Collins AD (1999). Environmental impact assessment (EIA) Guideline for oil palm plantation .http://www.sabahgov.myipstechnical/op21110 00 Craswell ET, Lefroy RDB (2001). The role and function of organic matter in tropical soils. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 61: 7-18. Edema CU, Idu TE, Edema MO (2011). Remediation of soil contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from crude oil. African Journal of Biotechnology, 10(7): 1146-1149. Giri B, Giang PH, kumari R, Prasad R, Varma A (2005). Microbial diversity in soils: Roles and functions. Soil Biology, doi:10.0007/3-54026609-2 Gould WA, Walker MD (1999). Plant communities and landscape diversity along a Canadian Arctic river. Journal of Vegetation Science, 10:537548. Ibitoye AA (2006). Laboratory Manual on Basic Soil Analysis (2nd ed). Foladave Nigeria Limited, Akure, pp 30-37. Larcher MC (1980). Physiological Plant Ecology. Springer- Verlag, New-york. Lavers C, Field R (2006). A resource-based conceptual model of plant diversity that reassess casuality in the productivity-diversity relationship. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 15: 213-224. Lorestani B, Cheraghi M, Yousefi N (2011). Phytoremediation potential of native plants growing on a heavy metal contaminated soil of copper mine in Iran. World Academy of Science and Engineering and Technology, 53:377-382. Marschner H (1986). Mineral nutrition of higher plants. Academic press, London. Murphy J, Riley JP (1962). A modified Single Sowton method for the determination of phosphorus in natural water. Analytical chemistry, 27: 31-36.

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Mwegoha W (2008). The use of phytoremediation technology for abatement of soil and ground water pollution in Tanzania: opportunities and challenges. Journal of sustainable development in Africa, 10(10):140-156. Okwute OL, Isu NR (2007a). Impact analysis of palm oil mill effluent on the aerobic bacterial density and ammonium oxidizers in a dump site in Anyingba, Kogi State. African Journal of Biotechnology, 6(2): 116-119. Okwute OL, Isu NR (2007b). The environmental impact of palm oil effluent (POME) on some physico-chemical parameters and total aerobic bioload of soil at a dump site in Anyingba Kogi State, Nigeria. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 2(12), 656-662. Poku K (2002). Small -scale palm oil processing in Africa. Food and Agricultural Organisation, United Nations, Rome-Italy, pp 1-59. Sala DE, Laurenroth WK, Golluscio RA (1997). Plant functional types in temperate semi-arid regions, p. 217. In : Smith TM, Shugart HH, Woodward FI (ed). Plant functional types: Their relevance to ecosystem properties and global change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Stephen E, Egene UM (2012). Microbiology and physicochemical properties of soil polluted with lubricating oil in Anyingba, Kogi State, Nigeria. Nigerian Journal of Technological Research, 7(2): 49-52. Stephen E, Yakubu SA, Omebije PE, Edegbo E, Makolo D (2013). Physicochemical Properties of Spent Lubricating Oil Polluted Soil subjected to Phytoremediation Journal of Environment & Earth Sciences, 2 (1):1-4. Sundram K, Sambanthamurthi R, Tan YA (2003). Palm fruit chemistry and nutrition. Asian Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 12(3): 355-362. Tropical Development Institute, TDI (1984). Outlined method for the determination of organic matter content. United State Department of Agriculture (2006). Palm oil continues to dominate global consumption. http://www.fas.usda.gov/oilseed/circular/2006/0 6-06junecov.pdf. Wright SJ (1992). Seasonal drought, soil fertility and species density of tropical forest plant communities. Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 7: 260-263.

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Stephen Emmanuel is a PhD candidate in Environmental Microbiology at the Federal University of Technology Minna, Nigeria. He obtained his first degree in Microbiology from the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria in 2000. He bagged his Masters of Technology (M.Tech) degree from Federal University of Technology Minna in 2005. He lectures at Kogi State University Anyigba. His research is mainly on pollution, bioremediation and phytoremediation.

Oguche Apoche Oguche holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology from Kogi State University, Nigeria. He is currently on national youth service and hopes to pursue a postgraduate degree in Environmental Microbiology.

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