Journal article

Publication year: 2021

Pages: 282-293

Journal: Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science

Volume number: 184

Issue number: 2

ISSN: 1436-8730

eISSN: 1522-2624

Open access status: Hybrid

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1002/jpln.202000261

Publisher: Wiley-VCH Verlag

Abstract: 

Background and aims: Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for crop growth. However, while links of P turnover in soils to carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) availability have been described, it remains to be clarified how combinations of fertilizer C and N additions affect stocks and cycling of distinct P fractions at different soil depths. The objectives of our study were (1) to assess how soil total P stocks are affected by organic amendments and N fertilization, (2) to evaluate how different soil P fractions respond to N fertilization, and (3) to verify whether N fertilization increases soil biological P cycling.

Methods: We collected soil samples from a long-term field experiment established in 1984 in Rauischholzhausen, Germany. The soil is a Haplic Luvisol and received either no organic fertilizer (NOF), farmyard manure (FYM) or a combination of organic and mineral N fertilizer (OMF). Each treatment additionally received three levels of mineral N: 0 kg ha(-1) y(-1) (N0), 100 kg ha(-1) y(-1) (N100), and 200 kg ha(-1) year(-1) (N200). The organic fertilizers were applied by a manure spreader and the N fertilizer (calcium ammonium nitrate) was applied in spring as top dressing by a plot fertilizer machine. We estimated stocks of P in fractions isolated by sequential P fractionation, and assessed the oxygen isotopic composition of 1 M HCl-extractable phosphate (delta O-18(P)).

Results: We found that increased organic matter (OM) addition and mineral N inputs caused significant decreases in the stocks of resin- and NaHCO3-extractable P in the topsoil (0-30 cm). Mineral N fertilization alone resulted in significant increases in stocks of resin-, NaHCO3-, and NaOH-extractable P in the upper subsoil (30-50 cm). These changes occurred for both inorganic and organic P. The subsoil delta O-18(P) values were closer to expected equilibrium values in soil fertilized with mineral N, indicative of more intensive biological P cycling than in the treatments without mineral N inputs.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that long-term OM and mineral N fertilization promotes topsoil P losses from labile fractions by crop uptake with an enrichment of these P forms in the subsoil, and an overall increase in biological P cycling in both top- and subsoil horizons upon N fertilization.

Harvard Citation style: Wang, Y., Bauke, S., von Sperber, C., Tamburini, F., Guigue, J., Winkler, P., et al. (2021) Soil phosphorus cycling is modified by carbon and nitrogen fertilization in a long-term field experiment, Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science = Zeitschrift für Pflanzenernährung und Bodenkunde, 184(2), pp. 282-293. https://doi.org/10.1002/jpln.202000261

APA Citation style: Wang, Y., Bauke, S., von Sperber, C., Tamburini, F., Guigue, J., Winkler, P., Kaiser, K., Honermeier, B., & Amelung, W. (2021). Soil phosphorus cycling is modified by carbon and nitrogen fertilization in a long-term field experiment. Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science = Zeitschrift für Pflanzenernährung und Bodenkunde. 184(2), 282-293. https://doi.org/10.1002/jpln.202000261