Organic phosphorus fractionation in wetland soil profiles by chemical extraction and phosphorus-31 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Abstract

Organic P (OP) plays an important role in soil P cycling and is a potential P source for wetland plants. In this study, a modified chemical sequential fractionation method and 31P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (31P NMR) of NaOH–EDTA extracts were used to examine the distribution of organic P fractions and compounds in soil profiles of the Beijing Yeyahu Wetland, China. The influence of acid treatment prior to NaOH–EDTA extraction on 31P NMR spectra was also investigated. Results show that highly resistant OP was the major class of organic P. The rank order of organic P fractions was highly resistant OP (on average accounting for 68.5% of total OP)>moderately resistant OP (15.8%m of total OP)>moderately labile OP (11.4% of total OP)>labile OP (4.3% of total OP). Most of the organic P fractions decreased with soil depth due to the accumulation of plant residues in surface soils and the deposition and diagenesis of soils. Moderately (r=0.586, p<0.01) and highly (r=0.741, p<0.01) resistant OP fractions were positively correlated with soil organic matter. Phosphorus compounds including orthophosphate (23–74.6% of total P in spectra), monoester phosphate (18.6–76%), diester phosphate (nil-7.8%) and pyrophosphate (nil-6.7%) were characterized using 31P NMR. Monoester-P was the dominant soil organic P compound identified. The proportion of monoester-P increased significantly in NaOH–EDTA extracts with HCl pretreatment and it was confirmed by chemical analysis. Therefore, it can be concluded that HCl pretreatment can remove more than half of the inorganic P and increase the overall recovery rate of organic P during subsequent NaOH–EDTA extraction, which might be a new approach for organic P detection. Furthermore, the OP chemical sequential fractionation method presented in this study is an integrated and comprehensive approach which can be used for further verification.