Is the atmosphere an important source of phosphorus in northern Poland?

Abstract

Jarosiewicz A., Witek Z. (2016): Is the atmosphere an important source of phosphorus in northern Poland? Soil & Water Res., 11: 139–145. In this paper we determined the phosphorus (P) concentration in precipitation, and calculated the annual P deposition rate at three study sites located in northern Poland. We observed that the mean annual volume-weighted concentra tion of mineral phosphorus (P min ) in wet deposition varies from site to site. The estimated annual wet deposition rate of P min in the study region amounted from 0.1 to 0.39 kg/ha. The concentration and deposition rate of P min in the southern part of the study region was significantly lower than that in the northern and central part. We detected that the P min deposition was strongly positively correlated with the fraction of arable land in the study site vicinity, and also positively correlated with the mineral P fertilizer consumption in the area. The mean annual volume-weighted concentration of P min in wet deposition varied from 0.015 mg/l in the area of the lowest arable land percentage and the lowest mineral fertilizer consumption, to 0.046 mg/l in the area where the arable lands comprise 84% of agricul tural land, and mineral P fertilizer consumption exceeded 33 kg/ha. In the P soil surface balance the atmospheric wet deposition represents 2.1–5.6% of annual total inputs of total P. The level of atmospheric P input varies widely by catchment and is related to land use (fertilizing, intensity and type of crop production).