Converting reactive iron, reactive aluminium, and phosphorus retention index (PRI) to the phosphorus buffering index (PBI) for sandy soils of south-western Australia

Abstract

The recently developed phosphorus (P) buffering index (PBI) is now the national single-point P sorption index to rank the capacity of soil to sorb P. However, before PBI was developed, P sorption was routinely measured by 2 simple procedures in Western Australia: (i) since the mid 1970s, reactive iron (Fe), which is the concentration of Fe extracted from soil by ammonium oxalate; and (ii) since the mid 1980s, the P retention index (PRI), a single-point P sorption index. Both reactive Fe and aluminium (Al) extracted from soil by ammonium oxalalate (reactive Al) have been measured in experiments conducted in Western Australia. Because PBI is now routinely measured in Western Australia there is the need to convert historical reactive Fe, reactive Al, and PRI values to PBI values. In this study we used soil samples collected from 2 field studies and a study of 96 paddocks, all on sandy soil types common in the region, to measure PBI, reactive Fe, reactive Al (not measured in the paddock study), and PRI. We related PBI (dimensionless), as the dependent (y-axis), to reactive Fe (mg/kg), reactive Al (mg/kg), or PRI (mL/g), as the independent (x-axis). The relationships for all data were good for reactive Al (47 data points from the 2 field studies) and PRI (133 data points for the 2 field studies and the paddock study): --> However, the relationships was poor for reactive Fe (133 data points) and differed for each of the 2 field studies and the paddock study, so no consistent, reliable approach for converting reactive Fe to PBI values could be determined. We recommend that reactive Fe is no longer used in the region, and that only PBI is used to estimate P sorption.