Record ID No. |
5497 |
Author(s) |
Mackay J.E., Macdonald L.M., Smernik R.J., Cavagnaro T.R. , 2017 |
Affiliation |
Waite Research Institute and School of Agriculture, Food and Wine, University of Adelaide, Waite Campus, Glen Osmond, SA, 5064, Australia. |
Title |
Organic amendments as phosphorus fertilisers: Chemical analyses, biological processes and plant P uptake |
Source. Vol.(no):Page |
Soil Biology and Biochemistry.107:50-59p. |
Categories |
|
Subjects |
Biological Interaction Methodology |
Sub-subjects |
Phosphorus metabolism |
Host |
Wheat |
Organism |
Rhizophagus, Funneliformis, Glomus, Septoglomus, Gigaspora, Scutellospora and Entrophospora |
Country |
Australia |
Abstracts |
As phosphorus (P) fertilisers become increasingly expensive there is a need to find innovative ways to supply crops with P. Organic amendments (OA) can contain high concentrations of total P, although the P is present in various forms. We aimed to determine the forms of P and carbon (C) in a range of OA and the effect of these OA on soil microbial biomass, P release, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) colonisation, and plant P uptake. Four OA were investigated: two chicken litters (CHK-STR and CHK-SD, one with straw bedding and one with sawdust bedding), a pig litter (PIG-STR) and a municipal waste compost (COMP). An incubation experiment and a plant growth experiment were conducted in which OA and INORG-P were supplied at 15 mg P kg−1 soil and a zero P control was included. All OA had high P concentrations and did not result in an increase in the soil microbial biomass C. There were few temporal changes in available P throughout the incubation experiment suggesting that solubilisation and/or mineralisation of P occurred at a similar rate as conversion of P to unusable forms. Of the OA, PIG-STR had the largest proportion of orthophosphate P and bicarbonate extractable P, and it provided the most P to plants. While CHK-STR had a higher proportion of orthophosphate P and bicarbonate extractable P than CHK-SD, both CHK-STR and CHK-SD provided plants with similar amounts of P. This could be because CHK-SD had a higher proportion of phytate, which can be rapidly mineralised to orthophosphate, and/or because plants in the CHK-SD had higher rates of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) colonisation compared with CHK-STR. This study provides new insights into plant and microbial responses to OA which could help in the development of sustainable food production systems. |