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Dynamics of phosphate in soils. An isotopic outlook

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Abstract

The quantities of phosphorus leached or carried away by erosion are always low in comparison with the quantity of P taken by plants. Therefore, without P application, dynamics of P in soil-plant systems depends mainly on plant P uptake from available soil P. This paper concerns mainly the description and the analysis of available soil phosphate. Available soil P is generally determined using extraction methods. It was shown, using isotopic exchange, method developed in soil-solution mixtures in steady-state, that available soil P could be described as a system with many pools. For agronomic purposes, available soil P was described with five pools of phosphate ions which have increasing rates of transfer from soil particles to soil solution. The most important is a pool which contains only directly available phosphate ions. These phosphate ions leave the solid phase of the soil to enter in the soil solution in a time shorter than 15 seconds: this time is the minimum time required to realize its determination. The intensity, quantity and capacity factors recommended to describe the available soil P are derived from experimental data characterizing this pool. The four other pools all are directly branched on this central pool. They are characterized by the quantities of P they contain and by the time required for the phosphate ions they contain to enter into the soil-solution. Effects of continuous P uptakes and of various P applications on these compartments were described. It was shown that: (i) continuous cropping without P return decreases ineluctably the intensity and quantity factors, and consequently soil P fertility (ii) applications of P quantities higher than P outputs with crops do not always increase the intensity and quantity factors, and consequently available soil P and its availability. The absolute values of the increase depends on: the type of P fertilizer or crop residues applied on the soil, on the level of soil P fertility before P application and on the fixing capacity of the soil for phosphate ions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Département de Ecophysiologie Végétale et Microbiologie, Commissariat á l'Energie Atomique - Cadarache, 13 108 Saint-Paul-Lez-Durance, France

    J. C. Fardeau

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  1. J. C. Fardeau
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This paper was originally submitted as part of the special issue on Evaluation of the Agronomic Effectiveness of Phosphate Fertilizers through the use of Nuclear Related Techniques edited by F. Zapata.

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Fardeau, J.C. Dynamics of phosphate in soils. An isotopic outlook. Fertilizer Research 45, 91–100 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00790658

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00790658

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