Phosphorus sorption capacity of alkaline Manitoba soils and its relationship to soil properties

Abstract

The establishment of the P retention capacity of soil in Manitoba is essential for effective management of P in the region. However, the methods for determining the P retention capacity for neutral to calcareous soils in the Eastern Prairies are not well developed. The objectives of this study were to determine the P retention capacity of Manitoba soils and to generate equations that relate these capacities to other soil properties. One hundred and fifteen archived surface soils were selected and their physico-chemical properties were measured. These soils were used to generate a single-point P adsorption index by equilibrating 2 g of soil in 20 mL of 0.01 M KCl solution containing either 150 (P150) or 400 (P400) mg P L-1. A subset of 26 of these soils was used for multipoint isotherms with P concentrations in the range of 0–1000 mg P L-1. The data obtained were fitted to the Langmuir isotherm and the adsorption indices were correlated with the various soil properties that were then used to developed predictive equations of the P retention capacity of the soil. The values of the adsorption index, P150, obtained from the single point adsorption study using 150 mg P L-1, ranged between 88 and 891 mg P kg-1, while that of P400 ranged between 100 and 1250 mg P kg-1. A better correlation was obtained between P150 and soil properties compared with P400. For the 26 soil subset, the adsorption indices, Smax1 to Smax 6, obtained from the Langmuir isotherm, ranged from 300 to 1330 mg kg-1. A good correlation was obtained between the single point index and the multipoint isotherm (r = 0.93). Hence, Smax for the 115 soils was estimated from the relationship between P150 and Smax 3 of the 26 soils. The best relationships between the adsorption parameters, P150 and Smax, and the soil properties were obtained with the sum of Mehlich-3 extractable Ca and Mg (R2= 0.66) and the sum of exchangeable Ca and Mg (R2= 0.64). Mehlich-3-Ca and -Mg each explained 56% of the variation, while clay content explained 40% of the variation in the P retention capacity of these soils. Unlike the widely reported influence of Al and Fe in acid soils, our study showed that the retention of P in Manitoba soils was influenced more by Ca and Mg and soil texture. Key words: Phosphorus, phosphorus retention capacity, phosphorus adsorption capacity, phosphorus sorption, single-point index