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Universitas Muhammadiyah Sidoarjo
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Science
DOI: 10.21070/acopen.10.2025.11393
Published: 2025-06-18

Zeolite Application Improves Soil Structure and Water Retention in Agriculture


Aplikasi Zeolit Memperbaiki Struktur Tanah dan Retensi Air di Bidang Pertanian

College of Agricultural Engineering Sciences, University of Baghdad
Iraq

(*) Corresponding Author

Zeolites Soil Conditioner Water Retention Nutrient Efficiency Sustainable Agriculture

Abstract

General Background: Sustainable agriculture increasingly relies on soil amendments that improve physical properties and resource efficiency. Specific Background: Zeolites—hydrated crystalline aluminosilicates—are recognized for their high porosity, cation exchange capacity, and water retention, making them valuable in soil management. Knowledge Gap: Despite broad applications, a comprehensive understanding of zeolite's role in enhancing physical soil properties across various textures under field conditions remains limited. Aims: This review investigates zeolite’s influence on soil bulk density, porosity, water retention, and overall plant productivity, particularly under water stress. Results: Findings from multiple field and laboratory studies reveal that zeolite addition improves water-holding capacity, reduces soil bulk density, enhances total porosity, and increases crop yield and water use efficiency. Novelty: The synthesis of recent evidence demonstrates that zeolites not only act as soil conditioners but also serve as strategic tools in mitigating water stress and optimizing nutrient use, outperforming other soil amendments such as biochar under similar conditions. Implications: These insights support integrating zeolite into sustainable soil management practices to bolster agricultural resilience in arid and semi-arid environments, aligning with global efforts toward resource-efficient and climate-adaptive farming systems.
Highlight :

  • Water Use Efficiency: Zeolites improve soil's ability to retain water, significantly benefiting crops under drought or limited irrigation.

  • Soil Structure Enhancement: They reduce bulk density and increase porosity, enhancing root growth and nutrient movement.

  • Nutrient Management: Zeolites act as slow-release reservoirs, increasing nutrient availability while minimizing leaching.

Keywords : Zeolites, Soil Conditioner, Water Retention, Nutrient Efficiency, Sustainable Agriculture

 

Introduction

Zeolite is a wholly natural substance formed millions of years ago by geological processes including the disintegration of volcanic glass and its interaction with alkaline water (American Public Health Association, 1985). Zeolite is a hydrated crystalline aluminosilicate characterised by distinctive physical and chemical characteristics. The International Zeolite Association has documented about 200 zeolite species, including 40 natural zeolites (Eslami et al., 2018). The defining characteristic of zeolites is their open, very porous structure, which accommodates balancing cations to counter the significant electrostatic charge of the tetrahedral silica-alumina framework. The interior surface area of the zeolite framework may reach several hundred square meters per gramme (Kloc et al., 2021). The remarkable physical and chemical features of zeolite render it an efficient cation exchanger, capable of absorbing and retaining water, as well as serving as an excellent adsorbent for neutral molecules, hence facilitating its use in agriculture, industrial, and environmental applications. Commercially manufactured zeolites are often used due to their high purity and uniform particle sizes, rendering them suitable for scientific, technical, environmental, and industrial applications. Zeolite type A has been synthesised from inexpensive raw materials, including fly ash, kaolin, and industrial byproducts. Synthetic zeolites has superior adsorption capability compared to natural zeolites. A zeolite, characterised by its linked channels and cavities, serves as a reservoir for water and nutrients, making it a crucial property for adsorption capacity. Zeolite has a substantial surface area and mesopores that facilitate easy penetration. Consequently, it may serve as a natural agricultural enhancer in sustainable agricultural production, exhibiting slow-release properties (Kurniawan, 2019). The distinctive physical and chemical characteristics of zeolite enable it to regulate the circulation of water and cations within the soil (Malferrari et al., 2021). Zeolite is an essential mineral for enhancing soil structure due to its distinctive physical and chemical characteristics (Mondal et al., 2021). Zeolites enhance the cation exchange capacity of soil and improve water retention in the root zone (Jakkula & Wani, 2018), reduce mineral leaching, and sequester heavy metals and organic pollutants in contaminated soils, among other potential factors (Azough et al., 2017; Ati & Razin, 2021).

Methodology

Zeolites were proven to hold water within the study by Shokouhi et al. (2016) thereby increasing soil water efficiency. Zeolites are used for molecular sieves and air purification. They exhibit biological activity due to cation exchange and the adsorption and/or catalysis of chemical and biological processes (Chouikhi et al., 2019). This does not contradict Bikkinina et al. (2020), who proved that zeolite contributed not only to plant nutrition but also to the enhancement of the agronomic and physical features of the soil by increasing its bulk density. Mumpton (1999) included zeolite to enhance soil qualities over an extended period, noting its effects on increasing soil permeability, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and water retention capacity. It also enhances aeration and several other physical qualities. Polat et al. (2004) incorporated zeolite into the soil to enhance nutrient retention in the root zone, thereby positively influencing plant yield, growth, and survival under abiotic stresses such as drought and metal toxicity (Litaor et al., 2017; Ati et al., 2020). The findings from Lancellotti et al. (2014) shown that natural zeolite enhanced cation exchange capacity by 18–19%. The aeration of soil may be enhanced by incorporating coarse zeolite grains into clay soils. The incorporation of zeolite enhanced the specific surface area of soils. Organic compounds in the soil enhanced the specific surface area due to the adsorption capacity provided by zeolite compounds (Kloc et al., 2021; Cairo et al., 2017; Ati & Dawod, 2024; Dawod et al., 2024). In this context, even little applications of zeolites to the soil may enhance environmental quality. In addition to their other roles, zeolites serve as soil conditioners that enhance soil physical qualities, reduce water loss, and hence save soil moisture for plants.

Results

Zeolites can store large quantities of water and nutrients available for the plants and release them according to the necessities of the plants, bettering plant growth with scarce irrigation water supplies (). According to Khalifa et al., 2019, zeolites use can improve macronutrients, cation exchange capacity, and porosity. The values of total water, available water, field capacity, and permanent wilting point appear to be because of the ability of zeolite to absorb high quantities of irrigation water within its pore spaces. Holding irrigation water in the root zone up to the capacity of what is taken up by plants provides a solution toward fighting water stress. Zeolite is a product that is environmentally friendly. Natural zeolite has a well-distributed pore structure; nonetheless, its surface area is much inferior to that of most carbons produced using an expanded technique, as noted by Mosa et al. (2020). El-Sherpiny et al. (2020) said that zeolite may retain 55% of the soil moisture accessible for various plant metabolic processes. The use of zeolite at 10 mg/ha, incorporated into the soil surface prior to planting, enhanced overall porosity and reduced soil bulk density. They demonstrated that soil bulk density serves as an effective indication of primary physical soil attributes. A reduction in its value indicates an increase in soil structure, hence enhancing soil biological and chemical characteristics. The experiment's results indicated a significant reduction in soil bulk density and an enhancement in total porosity after the addition of zeolite to the soil. The rise in total soil porosity is attributed to zeolite's high total porosity, which indicates potential for soil enhancement and reduced bulk density. These findings are consistent with those of Rosalina et al. (2019). It is said that superior soil physical qualities, such as bulk density and total porosity, result from the application of zeolite to the soil.

Discussion

Results obtained by El-Sherpiny et al. (2020) showed that zeolite improved most of its properties. Its ability to improve water-holding capacity and nutrient retention of the soil is an effective method of moisture conservation. This has, therefore, led to the use of zeolite as one of the sustainable management programs for crops under water-stress conditions. Abdel-Hady et al. (2025) conducted a field experiment to test the response of Zea mays plants to the application of zeolite and abscisic acid under water-stress conditions. The results of their research showed significant improvements in maize growth and productivity, providing proper recommendations for farmers in whose practices zeolite should be included in soil management and foliar application of abscisic acid to crop performance during drought periods. Mostafa et al. (2024) emphasized that the use of zeolite is a new approach aimed at improving water-use efficiency and increasing crop productivity. Elawady et al. (2024) expounded that zeolite practices a major trend in improving soil properties by increasing water and nutrient-holding capacity, adding to plant health and its ability to combat water stress.

El Sherpiny et al. (2024) performed an experiment to improve the production of lettuce cultivated using deficit irrigation supplemented with zeolite and charcoal, as well as foliar irrigation enhancers arginine and melatonin, utilising a drip irrigation technique. Zeolite gave the most effective outcomes compared to biochar and all other amendments; it was clearly better. The superiority of zeolite over biochar may be attributed to its unique characteristics and function, particularly its high water retention capacity, which allows for slow water release to plant roots. Furthermore, it may enhance the soil's structural integrity (Bahador & Tadayon, 2020; Khamees et al., 2023). The zeolite feature maintains moisture equilibrium in the soil during water scarcity, hence facilitating plant water absorption under dry situations. The enhanced quality of lettuce attributed to zeolite treatment is elucidated by the high cation exchange capacity of zeolite, facilitating the efficient transfer of important nutrients from the soil solution to plant roots. This improves nutrient accessibility and subsequent absorption by the plant. Due to its selective adsorption capabilities, zeolite preferentially adsorbs some ions over others. This may be solely focused on improving nutrient availability and diminishing competitive absorption by the plant. Zeolite may assist in regulating soil pH by preventing plants from affecting the pH of their rhizosphere. This is crucial for regulating an ideal pH for nutrient availability, since some nutrients are more accessible to plants at various pH levels. Zeolite may gradually release essential micronutrients, therefore maintaining their availability for plant absorption over an extended period. This slow-release mechanism mitigates nutrient leaching, hence enhancing nutrient utilisation efficiency.

Conclusion

During the winter season of 2016-2017, a field experiment was carried out at the College of Agriculture, Al-Muthanna University. Zeolite effects on some physical aspects of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) growth were the focus of this study. Six rates of natural zeolite mineral were 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, and 1% combined with 2 rates of decomposed animal organic matter, 0.2 and 0.4%, and two soil textures, sandy and mixed. The zeolite was mixed with organic matter at a rate of 10 kg per pot. Zeolite significantly reduced the bulk density values of both sandy and mixed soils. It significantly reduced the saturated water conductivity of sandy soils but the mixed soil was significantly increased at 0.4% zeolite. Both significantly reduced and then increased the soil water-holding capacity with the increase in zeolite level. The available water content in both soil types and the percentage of hydrated soil increased as the zeolite content in the soil increased. Belviso et al. (2022) shown that zeolites may be used on a wide scale since they enhance soil attributes, including transpiration rates, saturated water conductivity, water retention capacity, and cation exchange capacity. Ibrahim and Alghamdi (2021) posited that the application of clinoptilolite zeolite to sandy soils significantly enhances water-holding capacity and reduces saturated water conductivity, hence improving water usage efficiency and saving water in dry environments. The reduction in mass per unit volume results in improved overall porosity of the soil and enhanced stability of its aggregates when this zeolite is applied to sandy soils. In a study conducted by Baghbani-Arani et al. (2020) during the 2014-2015 agricultural season on sandy soil in a semi-arid area of Iran, the research examined three irrigation levels (40%, 60%, and 80% of available water loss) and three levels of zeolite application (0, 5, and 10 t ha-1). Findings indicated that water scarcity markedly reduced yield, productivity, water usage efficiency, and the oil and protein content of the grains. The treatments including zeolite exhibited a significant improvement in water use efficiency (WUE) according to the rising proportion of zeolite added. The improvement in water usage efficiency originated from grain production.

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