Soil Testing to Predict Dissolved Reactive Phosphorus Loss in Surface Runoff from Organic Soils

Phosphorus loss from surface runoff contributes to eutrophication of surface water, a problem that is often severe from polders with organic soils where agricultural production is intensive. A soil P test is essential to predict the potential for P losses to precisely conduct environmental risk asse...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSoil Science Society of America journal Vol. 78; no. 5; pp. 1786 - 1796
Main Authors Zheng, Z.M., Zhang, T.Q., Wen, G., Kessel, C., Tan, C.S., O'Halloran, I.P., Reid, D. K., Nemeth, D., Speranzini, D.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Madison The Soil Science Society of America, Inc 01.09.2014
American Society of Agronomy
Subjects
Agricultural production
Environmental assessment
Environmental indicators
Environmental risk
Eutrophication
Floods
Moisture content
Organic soils
Phosphorus
Polders
Research projects
Risk assessment
Runoff
Saturated soils
Soil conservation
Soil testing
Soil water
Surface runoff
Surface water
Water quality
Watersheds
Lake Simcoe
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Summary:Phosphorus loss from surface runoff contributes to eutrophication of surface water, a problem that is often severe from polders with organic soils where agricultural production is intensive. A soil P test is essential to predict the potential for P losses to precisely conduct environmental risk assessment and to efficiently develop and evaluate beneficial management practices. This study evaluated the possibility of using the environmental and agronomic soil P tests, soil P sorption index (PSI), and degree of soil P saturation (DPS), which are used for mineral soils, to predict surface runoff dissolved reactive P (DRP) from organic soils. Forty‐four soils from eight subgroups representative of organic lands across Ontario were selected to provide a wide range of soil test P (STP) within each category. A surface runoff study was conducted following the U.S. National Phosphorus Research Project protocol. Flow‐weighted mean runoff DRP concentration (DRP30) was linearly related to soil water‐ and CaCl2–extractable P concentrations but with data distribution patterns that inefficiently represented the soil variability in P release potentials. The runoff DRP30 was significantly related to Bray‐1 P and FeO‐extractable P concentrations in split‐line models, each with a change point, but not to Mehlich‐3 P and Olsen P. All DPS values calculated based on STP and their derived PSIs were closely related to runoff DRP30 in either a linear or a split‐line model. The DPS values expressed as Bray‐1 P/(PSI + Bray‐1 P) and FeO P/(PSI + FeO P) showed the highest correlation with runoff DRP30 and thus can be recommended as environmental risk indicators of surface runoff DRP from organic soils.
Bibliography:All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Permission for printing and for reprinting the material contained herein has been obtained by the publisher.
ISSN:0361-5995
1435-0661
DOI:10.2136/sssaj2014.02.0065