The natural soil contains lots of microorganisms that are sufficient enough to naturally produce nutrients required for agricultural activities and benefit the plants; moreover, that improves the quality and quantity of the yield produce. In a situation where the soil fertility is deteriorated, natural and organic fertilizer should be added as they provide all the necessary nutrients required by the living microorganisms and the plants (Traina & Laperche, 1999). Artificially developed fertilizers are rich in nutrients that boost the yield quality and quantity but should be controllably used as they might kill all the microorganism transforming the productive soil into sand.
/>
Various technological inventions have been developed and incorporated in agricultural sector to improve the quality, quantity and time duration through which the products might be realized. Biological processes allowing the production of nutrients over the growing season to enhance the soil health are in practice, Traina and Laperche, (1999) refer to it as “feeding the soil to feed the plant”. Such organic farming methods include mulching, crop rotation, application of compost and green manure, however, naturally processed fertilizers like phosphate may also be used to improve on the soil fertility.
Phosphates ions from soluble solids with toxic metals like zinc and lead, as a result, they are used to reduce the bioavailability and mobility of such metals in contaminated resources like water, sewage and soil. Lead is a dangerous metal both to flora and fauna, by adding a highly soluble forms of phosphates can hence reduce its bioavailability inducing the formation of lead phosphate (Sattari, Bouwman, Giller, & Ittersum, 2012). Consequently this might cause cultural eutrophication as the soluble phosphate might move to the surrounding water bodies by either erosion or infiltration. Traina et al. (1999) describes and alternative method of using lower soluble phosphate such as apatite.
Phosphate when added to soil in an adequate quantity, the crop yield can proportionately increase with decreasing application of phosphate. Continuous past input of minerals and organic fertilizers has significantly reduced the phosphate inputs that is required, even though its consumption by plants has increased or stabilized, they utilize the accumulated residual in soil.
Spectrophotometry is the quantitatively measured amount of light as a function of wavelength that materials absorbs by passing beams of light through such samples of materials and determining the intensity of light reaching the detector. The light rays consist of photons that are absorbed by the analyte molecules; in the process, the number of released photons reaching the detector are reduced, consequently the light beam intensity is also reduced (Damean, Sia, Linder, Narovlyansky, & Whitesides, 2005).
The light fraction passing through the material samples to the detector is transmittance (T) whereas the quantity absorbed is referred to as absorbance (A). To be able to determine the transmittance and absorbance properties of a material; light intensity (I0) passing through space is determined, secondly the intensity (I) passing through a sample that absorbs light is too measured. Therefore, transmittance (T) and absorbance (A) are determined as follows (Damean et al., 2005).
T = I and A = - Log10 T.
I0
Spectrophotometry is a useful technique applicable to various fields of study. It allows one to identify items in enclosed containers that might seem dangerous when touched, depending on its controls through calculations of the observed wavelengths. It is mostly applicable in security checks.
Reference.
Damean, N., Sia, S. K., Linder, V., Narovlyansky, M., & Whitesides, G. M. (2005). Space- and time-resolved spectrophotometry in microsystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102(29), 10035–10039. doi:10.1073/pnas.0504712102
Sattari, S. Z., Bouwman, A. F., Giller, K. E., & Ittersum, M. K. van. (2012). Residual soil phosphorus as the missing piece in the global phosphorus crisis puzzle. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(16), 6348–6353. doi:10.1073/pnas.1113675109
Traina, S. J., & Laperche, V. (1999). Contaminant bioavailability in soils, sediments, and aquatic environments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 96(7), 3365–3371. doi:10.1073/pnas.96.7.3365
