Evaluation on a Novel Phosphorus Fractionation Method in Acid Soils

Abstract

Phosphorous fractionation is a method developed to estimate sizes of readily soil available P pool, soil P sub-pools and their ability to replenish the available P. Three types of acid soils (1aterite red soil, yellow red soil and brown red soil) were used in pot experiment under a rain-shelter condition to investigate the effect of lime amendment on P fractions and their bioavailability by plant of broad bean. A novel phosphorus fractionation scheme was developed and used to study the phosphorus fractionation of the tested soils compared with the two typical soil phosphorus fractionation schemes, adopting a series of extractants such as 0.25mol L-1 NaHCO3, 1h (for Ca2-P), 0.5mol L-1 NH4F (pH8.5), 1h (for Al-P), 0.7mol L-1 NaClO, pH 8.05, 85°C water bath 30min (for Org-P), 0.1mol L-1 NaOH-0.1Na2CO3, 4h (for Fe-P), 1mol L-1 NaOH, 85°C water bath 1h (for O-Al-P), 0.3 mol L-1 Na-citrate-0.5 g Na2S2O4 -0.5 mol L-1 NaOH, 85°C water bath 15min (for O-Fe-P), 0.25mol L-1 H2SO4, 1h (for Ca10-P). Main results are obtained just as follows: besides Ca2-P, Al-P, Fe-P and O-Fe-P are potentially available phosphorus resource. Although O-P reflects the difference of P between lime and control treatment well, when it appears as a whole, it needs further subdivision to reflect soil phosphorus biologically availability difference better.