Educational guide 2024_25 Facultade de Ciencias

Contents

Topic	Sub-topic
Part 1. Introduction and general considerations.	1. Agricultural Chemistry: Concept, origin, history. Objectives. Future perspectives. 2. Soil components: solid, liquid and gaseous phase of soil. Inorganic soil components. Non-colloidal fraction. Colloidal fraction. Characteristics and origin of charge. Soil organic components. Characteristics of organic matter. Colloidal fraction (humus) and charge characteristics.
Part 2. Soil chemical properties, nutrients and fertilizers.	3. Soil chemical properties. Relationship between pH and crop productivity. Characteristics of agricultural soil in Galicia. 4. Soil chemical properties. Adsorption and ion exchange. Relationship between colloid charge and adsorption characteristics. Characteristics of ion exchange and equations that describe it: cation exchange and anion exchange. More or less irreversible binding. Adsorption-desorption kinetics. Adsorption curves: empirical approaches. 5. Essential plant nutrients. Classification. Functions of nutrients. Absorption of nutrients by plants. Factors influencing absorption. Interaction of nutrients. Diagnosis of nutrient deficiencies. Criteria of essentiability. Alterations in the plant due to nutrient element deficiencies. 6. Fertilization. Fertilizers and their classification. Organic and inorganic fertilizers. Restitution of nutrient losses. Richness and calculation of the necessary fertilizer. Response curve of plants to fertilization. Evolution of fertilizer consumption in the world and in Spain.
Part 3. Dynamics of essential elements for plants.	7. Nitrogen and nitrogen fertilizers. Nitrogen in the soil. Nitrogen in the plant. Nitrogen cycle. Nitrogen fertilizers. 8. Phosphorus and phosphate fertilizers. Phosphorus in the soil. Phosphorus in the plant. Phosphorus cycle. Phosphate fertilizers. 9. Potassium and potassium fertilizers. Potassium in the soil. Potassium in the plant. Potassium cycle. Potassium fertilizers. 10. Sulfur. Dynamics in the soil. Content and forms in the plant. Sulfur cycle. 11. Calcium. Dynamics in the soil. Content and forms in the plant. Calcium cycle. Notions of liming. 12. Magnesium. Dynamics in the soil. Content and forms in the plant. Mg cycle. 13. Boron. Dynamics in the soil. Content and forms in the plant. B cycle. 14. Iron. Dynamics in the soil. Content and forms in the plant. Fe cycle. 15. Manganese. Dynamics in the soil. Content and forms in the plant. Mn cycle. 16. Zn: Dynamics in the soil. Content and forms in the plant. Zn cycle. 17. Cu: Dynamics in the soil. Content and forms in the plant. Cu cycle. 18. Mo: Dynamics in the soil. Content and forms in the plant. Mo cycle. 19. Cl: Dynamics in the soil. Content and forms in the plant. Cl cycle. 20. Ni: Dynamics in the soil. Contents and forms in the plant. Ni cycle. 21. Essential elements for some plants: sodium, silicon, cobalt and vanadium.
Part 4. Sustainable agriculture	22. Pesticides in soils. Pesticide dynamics in soils. Persistence. Detection of pesticide residues. Fertilizer residues in soil. 23. Heavy metals: potentially toxic elements. Contamination problems. Soil decontamination. Phytotoxicity problems due to heavy metals.