[Determination of soil available nutrient contents using multi-element hollow cathode lamp]

The soil available nutrient determination based on atomic absorption spectrometry using multi-element hollow cathode lamp (HCL) is improved from the instrument using single-element HCLs via modifying the software and hardware. As a test, available Cu, Fe, Zn, Mg and Ca contents of 30 fluvo-aquic soil samples measured by atomic absorption spectrometry using a multi-element HCL were compared with that measured by using single-element HCLs for 3 replications. A significant linear relationship with the slope close to 1 was found in soil available Cu, Fe, Zn and Ca contents measured by using multi-element HCL and single-element HCLs. The linear correlation coefficient of 0.86 and the slope of 0.85 were found in soil available Mg content. No significant difference was revealed from the above comparison data via analysis of variance. Therefore, the soil available nutrient determination based on atomic absorption spectrometry using multi-element HCL has the same measurement accuracy and is 50%-60% time-saving compared to that by using single-element HCLs.