Environmental risk indicators for soil phosphorus status

Abstract

Biologically available phosphorus (P) is divided operationally into two sources, dissolved reactive P (DRP) and bioavailable particulate P (BPP). Dilute CaCl2-extractable soil P (CaCl2-P) is considered to be the benchmark method for estimating DRP in soils, whereas P desorbed to iron-oxide impregnated filter paper (FeO-P) is the benchmark method for BPP in soils and sediments. Neither of these methods is in routine use in Australia. Selected soil P analyses were carried out on 31 diverse surface soils to develop relationships between the environmental benchmark methods and the routine soil P tests of Colwell-P, Olsen-P, and the single-point P buffer index (PBI). The index (Colwell-P/PBI) was highly correlated with CaCl2-P (r = 0.925, P < 0.001), and both Olsen-P and Colwell-P were highly correlated with FeO-P (r = 0.955 and 0.828, respectively; P < 0.001). It is suggested that these measures can be used as environmental risk indicators for soil P status. The critical values of these measures for optimum productivity were compared to the values of these measures corresponding to threshold values of currently used environmental risk indicators.