Soil P fractions in a volcanic soil chronosequence of Central Mexico and their relationship to foliar P in pine trees

Abstract

Phosphorus (P) is a major plant nutrient, however, its availability in volcanic ash soils is presumed to be small, due to its specific sorption on short‐range order minerals. We analyzed distinct P fractions in volcanic ash soils of different age (60 to > 100,000 y BP) under pine forests in Central Mexico to investigate their changes along a chronosequence of Regosols, Andosols, and Lixisols, and to evaluate if P availability limits tree growth at any particular stage. Top soil and subsoil samples were first analyzed by the Tiessen and Moir method, which failed to extract exhaustively “organic” and “occluded P”, and “P associated with apatite”. Therefore, we modified the fractionation scheme by including a “recalcitrant organic P” fraction obtained from the difference between P determined in air‐dried subsamples and subsamples burned at 300°C; P adsorbed to short‐range order minerals was assessed in an extraction with NH4‐oxalate, and P in primary minerals by subtracting the sum of all other fractions from total P contents determined by XRF. This we did after discovering that primary P occurred in the form of fluorapatite included in plagioclase, volcanic glass or olivine. We also measured P contents in pine needles and related these with the “mobile soil P” fractions. The results show that “organic P” reaches maximum contents in 10,000‐y old soil, as does P associated with short‐range order minerals, while P occluded into crystalline oxides increases constantly over time. After 100,000 y, 31% of total P still remains in the form of primary P in A horizons. “Mobile P” was constant > 40 mg kg−1 in Regosols and Andosols and related positively with foliar P contents, which were within adequate nutritional ranges. Only in Lixisols small “mobile P” concentrations in soil correspond with inadequate P contents in pine needles.

Soil phosphorus supply controls P nutrition strategies of beech forest ecosystems in Central Europe

“…Results obtained from studies along chronosequences showed that aboveground and belowground P pools of ecosystems reflect the current state of interactions between P availability of soils and P uptake and usage by plants and microorganisms occurring at these sites (Pearson and Vitousek 2002;Selmants and Hart 2010;Turner and Condron 2013;Galván-Tejada et al 2014;Wu et al 2014). These studies suggest that the P contents of the parent material affect the development of ecosystems, especially in the soil compartment, based on different P-related plant-microorganism-soil interactions.…”

Phosphorus fractions and dynamics as affected by land‐use changes in the Central Mexican highlands

“…In these soils, there were small increases in easily available Pi (Figure a). Labile Pi accounted for <9% of total P, which is unlikely to be sufficient to provide available P as reported in other studies (Crews & Brookes, ; Galván‐Tejeda et al., ; Riskin et al., ).…”

Study on Determination of Categories of Soil Quality Variable Concentrations in Brackish water Ponds of Java Island, Indonesia

“…In this study, concentration of Fe categorized as moderate are 225.56-910.00 ppm are relatively higher compared to that reported by Boyd et al (1994) measured in pond soils of Thailand, Philippines, Ecuador, and Venezuela which were 200-750 ppm. As discussed earlier that the volcanic soils have high capacity in retaining phosphate because this type of soil contains more Al and Fe which resulted in low P availability for plants and eventually results severity in plants productions (Qafoku et al, 2004;Van Ranst et al, 2008;Mejías et al, 2013;Galván-Tejada et al, 2014). The concentration of Fe that categorized as moderate are 83.50-4,580.60 ppm in pond soils of South Sulawesi had been reported by Mustafa et al (2015b).…”