| Abstract: | The improvement of P management in agriculture and environment requires a good understanding of residual effect of applied P in soils. The specific adsorption of P on variable charge minerals has been considered as the major mechanism that leads to a very low utilization of P fertilizer by crops within a growing season in Chinese red soils. Soil incubation and isotope tracing analysis were carried out to examine the transformation kinetics and potential availability of added specifically sorbed 32P in two pH contrasting light textured soils. The 32P recovered by 0.5 M NaHCO3 extraction and microbial biomass-P measurement from the added specifically sorbed 32P in the soils was well described by a first-order reaction and a Langmuir-type kinetic model, with correlation coefficients (R) being, on average, 0.938 and 0.959, respectively. The half-life (t1/2, from the first-order model) of the four tested mineral-P complexes ranged from 29 to 47 d in the acid sandy soil and 33 to 105 d in the neutral silty soil. Goethite-P was the most stable among the four tested mineral-P complexes. The potential availability of the mineral complex P (qm, in percent of total 32P added) obtained from the Langmuir equation ranged from 43.7 to 90.9% for the four mineral-P complexes, and decreased in the order: Al oxide-P (90.9%) > montmorillonite-P (86.2%) > kaolinite-P (77.5%) > goethite-P (60.2%) in the acid sandy soil, whereas the order was Al oxide-P (89.3%) > kaolinite-P (86.2%) > montmorillonite-P (82.6%) > goethite-P (43.7%) in the neutral silty soil. Based on the release rate and potential availability, kaolinite-P and Al oxide-P could be important sources for residual effect of applied P in variable-charge soils. The goethite-P has the lowest release rate and potential availability among the mineral-P complexes, implying that iron oxides may be the most important variable-charge mineral responsible for P fixation in the Chinese red soils. |
