Mineralization of Organic Phosphorus in Soils as Affected by Addition of Inorganic Phosphorus

Abstract

The enhancement of mineralization of soil organic P that previous investigators had reported as resulting from incubation of soils with added inorganic P was not found in laboratory experiments. Previously reported recoveries of more than 100% of inorganic P added to certain alkaline soils before incubation, which also might be a consequence of enhanced mineralization of soil organic P, could not be reproduced except where the P was added in an acidified solution. Presumably an acidified solution was used by mistake in the previous work.