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RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Phosphorus sorption on tropical soils with relevance to Earth system model needs

Julia Brenner A , Wesley Porter B , Jana R. Phillips A , Joanne Childs A , Xiaojuan Yang A and Melanie A. Mayes https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6368-9210 A C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Environmental Sciences Division and Climate Change Science Institute, PO Box 2008, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831 USA.

B Department of Geosciences, Davis Science Building 241, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro TN 37132 USA.

C Corresponding author. Email: mayesma@ornl.gov

Soil Research 57(1) 17-27 https://doi.org/10.1071/SR18197
Submitted: 14 July 2018  Accepted: 4 November 2018   Published: 6 December 2018

Journal Compilation © CSIRO 2019 Open Access CC BY-NC-ND

Abstract

Phosphorus (P) availability critically limits the productivity of tropical forests growing on highly weathered, low-P soils. Although efforts to incorporate P into Earth system models (ESMs) provide an opportunity to better estimate tropical forest response to climate change, P sorption dynamics and controls on soil P availability are not well constrained. Here, we measured P and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) sorption isotherms on 23 soils from tropical Oxisol, Ultisol, Inceptisol, Andisol, and Aridisol soils using P concentrations from 10 to 500 mg P L−1, and DOC concentrations from 10 to 100 mg DOC L−1. Isotherms were fit to the Langmuir equation and parameters were related to soil characteristics. Maximum P sorption capacity (Qmax) was significantly correlated with clay content (ρ = 0.658) and aluminium (Al)- or iron (Fe)-oxide concentrations (ρ = 0.470 and 0.461 respectively), and the DOC Qmax was correlated with Fe oxides (ρ = 0.491). Readily available soil characteristics could eventually be used to estimate Qmax values. Analysis of literature values demonstrated that the maximum initial P concentration added to soils had a significant impact on the resultant Qmax, suggesting that an insufficiently low initial P range could underestimate Qmax. This study improves methods for measuring P Qmax and estimating Qmax in the absence of isotherm analyses and provides key data for use in ESMs.

Additional keywords: adsorption isotherm, clay, dissolved organic carbon, iron oxide, phosphorus adsorption.


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