Bottom soil quality age in Thailand

in Tilapia

ponds

of different

1 3 Taworn Thunjai . Claude E Boyd2 & Mali Boonyaratpalin

LThailand Department of Fisheries, Kasetsart University Campus. Bangkok. Thailand 2Department of Flsheries and Allied Aquacultures. Auburn University. Auburn. AL USA 3 Thailand Department of Fisheries. Kasetsart University Campus.. Bangkok.. Thailand
Correspondence: Dr C E Boyd. Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquacultures. Auburn University. Auburn. AL 36849. USA. E.mail:

ceboyd@acesage.auburn.edu

Abstrac t Bottom soil samples were collected from 35 ponds in the vicinity of Samutprakarn. Thailand. Ponds ran. ged in age from 3 to 39 years and had been used continuously for production of tilapia. Liming materials had been applied in large amounts. and bottom soils of all ponds had pH above 7. low exchange acidity. and free carbonate. Pond soils orten contained between 1% and 2% total sulphur. suggesting that they were potential acid-sulphate soils. However. acidity from sulphide oxidation was not expressed because carbonate in the soil neutralized it. Concentrations of total carbon seldom exceeded 4% and the average for organic carbon was 1.90%. The correlations between pond age and both total carbon and organic carbon concentration were weak (r = 034 and 036 respectively). Concentrations of nitrogen in bottom soils did not differ with pond age and ranged from 0.1% to 0.3% with an average of 0.19%. The average ratio of concentrations of carbon and nitrogen was 11. Acid-extractable phosphorus concentrations averaged 217 mg kg -1. but the phosphorus adsorption capacity averaged 768 mg kg -1 suggesting that soils still have considerable reserve capacity to adsorb phosphorus. Ponds can be used annually for semi-intensive production of tilapia. and presumably other species. for many years witl10ut serious deterioration of bottom soil quality. Keywords: liming Introduction Water quality in aquaculrure ponds is influenced by the exchange of substances between soil and water. Tilapia. bottom soils. soil carbon.

but only a few studies have clearly demonstrated relationships between bottom'soil quality and fish production in ponds (Boyd 1995), Nevertheless. many aquaculturists believe that soil quality deteriorates rapidly in semi-intensive and intensive aquaculture ponds and that older ponds tend to have low pH and high concentrations of organic matter in bottom soils. There have been a few studies of the relationship between pond age and bottom soil quality (Tucker 1985: Munsiri. Boyd & Hajek 1995: Munsiri. Boyd. Teichert-Coddington & Hajek 1996: Ritvo. Dixon. Lawrence. Samocha. NeilL & Speed 1998:Tepe & Boyd 2002). and the results of these studies do not support the opinion that pH declines markedly and organic matter accumulates to high concentrations in older ponds. The most common practices used in pond soil management are liming. drying of pond bottoms between crops, and sediment removal (Wurtz 1960: Chien 1989: Boyd 1995). Liming causes bottom soil pH and concentrations of total alkalinity and total hardness in pond water to increase. However. the necessity for annual or more frequent liming. as often done. is not supported by research findings. Drying pond bottoms between crops can accelerate the decomposition of organic matter and oxidize reduced substances in soil (Wurtz 1960: Boyd & Pipoppinyo 1994). The benefit of sediment removal on sediment quality is not well established and likely is unnecessary unless sediment is so deep that it causes a loss of pond volume or interferes with pond management (steeby, Kingsbury. Tucker & Hargreaves 2001: Tepe & Boyd 20(2).. Concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus increase in pond soils over time (Masuda & Boyd 1994: Munsiri et al. 1995: Ritvo et al. 1998). It is not known if the ratio of

Materials

and methods

Ponds and management

Analyses

Samples

Results

and discussion
and total hardness

Total alkalinity

Sediment

depth

Soil pH and exchange

acidity

Thickness

of S horizon

and bulk density Total sulphur

Soil carbon

Nitrogen

and phosphorus

Acknowledgments

Conclusions

References