Long-term application of fertilizer and manures affect P fractions in Mollisol

Application of phosphorus (P), a major plant nutrient, as fertilizer is critical to maintain P level for crop production and yield in most cultivated soils. While, it may impact the dynamics, limited studies have examined the long-term effects of fertilization on P fractions in a soil profile in Mollisol. A long-term field experiment was conducted at the State Key Experimental Station of Agroecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Hailun county, Heilongjiang Province, China. A sequential fractionation procedure was used to determine the effect of fertilizer (types) treatments including no fertilizer (CK), chemical fertilizer (NPK), chemical fertilizer plus straw (NPK + S) and pig manure (OM) on fractions of P and their distribution within 0–100 cm soil profiles. Unlike CK treatment, the long-term application of fertilizers increased the concentration and accumulation of total and available P in 0–20 and 0–40 cm soil depths than deeper soils, respectively. The phosphorus activity coefficient (PAC) ranged from 1.5 to 13.8% within 0–100 cm soil depth. The largest PAC value was observed under OM treatment at 0–40 cm soil depth and under NPK + S treatment at 40–100 cm soil depth. The Ca2-P and Ca8-P concentrations increased significantly by 0.5–7.5 times and 0.5–10.4 times, respectively in OM treatment with the largest value in 0–40 cm soil depth over CK treatment. The Al-P concentration under NPK + S and OM treatments increased throughout the soil profile. The OM treatment increased all Po concentrations in the 0–40 cm soil depth, while NPK and NPK + S treatments increased labile organic P, moderately labile organic P, and highly stable organic P in the 0–20 cm soil depth. Thus, the application of fertilizer and straw, or organic manure may enhance inorganic and organic P pool in a Mollisol in Northeast China. Thus, organic manure application in the subsoil as a potential P source and their impact should be considered in developing management practices and policies regarding nutrient management.

INFLUENCE OF TEXTURE AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON THE FORMS AND DISTRIBUTION OF SOIL PHOSPHORUS

Changes in soil phosphorus (P) forms, as determined by a sequential fractionation procedure, were used to assess the influence of soil texture and management practices on the forms and distribution of soil P in a Brown Chernozemic loam soil at Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Significant proportions of the variability of all P fractions except residual-P could be attributed to changes in sand content. Changes in the forms and distribution of soil P with decreasing sand content followed patterns similar to those associated with a weathering sequence. The proportion of total soil P in inorganic and organic extractable forms that were extractable sequentially with anion exchange resin (resin-Pi), sodium bicarbonate (bicarb-Pi and -Po), and sodium hydroxide (NaOH-Pi and -Po) increased with decreasing sand content. Acid-extractable inorganic P (HCl-Pi) was the only P fraction positively correlated with sand content. The presence of a crop increased the proportion of soil P present as the more labile organic-P fractions (bicarb-Po and NaOH-Po) but not as total soil organic P (soil-Po). The presence of a crop also increased the proportion of soil P present as the labile inorganic fractions (resin-Pi and bicarb-Pi), possibly due to a decrease in soil pH. Application of inorganic-P fertilizer caused significant increases in the proportion of soil P as these labile inorganic-P fractions (resin-Pi and bicarb-Pi) and as total soil organic-P (soil-Po), but did not affect the more labile organic-P fractions. Key words: P fractionation, labile P, organic P, inorganic P, texture, management practices