A Rapid and Sensitive Determination Method for Soil Nitrate Status

Abstract

A rapid and sensitive determination method for soil nitrate status is proposed using anion exchange high pressure liquid chromatography. The effect of different extracting solutions and elution‐buffer pH is investigated on the determination of NO2 and NO3 in standard solutions and various soil extracts in the concentration range of 0–40 ppm. A high lineair correlation is obtained between results from both the Bremner distillation method (1965) and this anion exchange HPLC‐method when compared on 69 soil samples. The sensitivity, reliability and ease of handling make anion exchange HPLC a valuable method for the determination of soil nitrate.