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Changes in heated and autoclaved forest soils of S.E. Australia. II. Phosphorus and phosphatase activity

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Abstract

The effect of soil heat and autoclaving on labile inorganic P (Bray I), microbial P (P-flush) and on phosphatase activity was studied by heating five forest soils in the laboratory, which simulated the effects of heat during bushfires. Top soil was heated to 60 °C, 120 °C and 250 °C or autoclaved for 30 minutes. Soils were analysed immediately after heating and during seven months of incubation to assess immediate and longer-term effects of heating.

Labile inorganic P increased immediately after heating and autoclaving soils, with the highest amount recorded for the 250 °C treatment. Phosphorus associated with microbial biomass decreased with heat, and none or small amounts were detected in soils heated to 250 °C and autoclaved, because high temperatures killed the microbial population. Most of the P released from microbes acted as a source of labile inorganic P in soils low in inorganic P, and some of the released P was fixed by the soil. In one soil high in inorganic labile P and with undetectable amounts of microbial-P, the increase in Bray P on heating could only be assigned to solubilisation of other sources of total P Because high temperatures denature enzymatic proteins, phosphatase activity diminished with the increase in temperature, and no activity was detected in 250 °C and autoclaved soils.

Phosphorus released by heating decreased during incubation in three of the five soils studied, approaching values observed in unheated soils. Simultaneously, an increase in microbial P was observed in these heated soils, indicating that the partial recovery of microbial biomass acted as a sink for the decrease in Bray-P measured. Phosphatase activity recovered only partially during incubation of heated soils.

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  1. Isabel Serrasolsas

    Present address: Department de Biologia Vegetal, Universitat de Barcelona, Avda Diagonal 645, 0828, Barcelona, Spain

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CSIRO, Division of Forestry, P.O. Box 4008, A.C.T. 2600, Canberra, Australia

    Isabel Serrasolsas & Partap K. Khanna

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  1. Isabel Serrasolsas
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  2. Partap K. Khanna
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Serrasolsas, I., Khanna, P.K. Changes in heated and autoclaved forest soils of S.E. Australia. II. Phosphorus and phosphatase activity. Biogeochemistry 29, 25–41 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00002592

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