Abstract
An understanding of the chemical nature of in soil is essential to the sustainability of agriculture in Ireland. This study used 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and wet-chemical analysis to characterise NaOH-EDTA-extractable in a grassland soil in south-east Ireland. Soil samples of 10cm depth were collected over five sampling days between September and December 2003. Total soil (Pt) ranged between 723 and 819mg kg-1 soil, while Morgan's (Pm) ranged between 3.4 and 12.5mg PI-1 soil. Recovery rates of extracted in the NaOH-EDTA solution were high, ranging from 75 to 88% of soil Pt. Four distinct classes of compound were detected in the 31P NMR spectra: inorganic orthophosphate ( =6.72 to 6.85ppm, with a mean of 6.79ppm), orthophosphate monoesters ( = 3.83 to 6.11ppm), orthophosphate diesters ( = ?0.32 to 0.54ppm) and pyrophosphates ( = ?3.44 to ? 3.13ppm, with a mean of ? 3.26ppm). Distinct signals at 5.64, 5.39, 5.02 and 4.55ppm in the spectra showed the dominance of myo-inositol hexakisphosphate in the orthophosphate monoester region. Orthophosphate diesters were subclassified as phospholipids ( =0 and 1.88ppm) and DNA ( =0.09 to ? O.lOppm). Over the three-month sampling period the mean percentages of the four main functional classes?inorganic orthophosphate, orthophosphate monoesters, orthophosphate diesters and pyrophosphates?in the soil samples were approximately 52, 42, 3 and 3%, respectively. The ratio of orthophosphate monoesters to orthophosphate diesters ranged from 10 to 19. Further research is required to assess the potential bioavailability of organic (Po) in Irish grassland soils in order to understand its role in the transfer of from agricultural soil to our water bodies. David Bourke (corresponding author; email: bourkedo@tcd.ie)
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