Effect of Sterilization on the Change of Available Phosphorus During the Wetting and Drying Process

Abstract

Wetting and drying are typical natural events in arid and semiarid areas. In order to explore the contribution of microorganisms to the change in soil phosphorus components during wetting and drying processes, soil incubation experiments were conducted on calcareous soil from Inner Mongolia grasslands. By comparing the change in various phosphorus fractions between sterilized and unsterilized soils, the microbial effect on the change in available phosphorus with soil moisture changes was studied. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in APi (NaHCO3-extractable inorganic phosphate) content between the two treatments. Sterilization caused the content of APo (NaHCO3-extractable inorganic phosphate) to significantly increase. These results suggested that soil microorganisms have a negligible influence on changes of soil available inorganic phosphorus (APi) in the present soil sample during the wetting and drying process. The change in APo may be related to the high-temperature and high-pressure sterilization processes. These results enrich our knowledge about the microbial influence on dynamics of soil available phosphorus during wetting and drying events.