Transformation of Phosphorus in Soils of Agroecosystems in Long-Term Experiments: Sustainability Challenges of Phosphorus and Food

Abstract

In field experiments with the long-term systematic application of fertilizers (prolonged trial), new regularities of the dynamics of the mobile phosphorus content in soils of various agroecosystems have been established. It is shown that the increase in the content of mobile phosphorus in different soils occurred only in the first rotation of crop rotations. In the future, despite the positive balance of phosphorus, the content of its mobile forms did not increase or even had a tendency to decrease due to the transition of phosphorus to an inactive state. In the case of a negative balance, the content of mobile phosphorus in soils was compensated by the reserve of inactive phosphates. Thanks to these processes of phosphate transformation in agricultural ecosystems supported the ecological balance, protecting against loss of phosphorus with surface and subsurface runoff of the element in the external environment and, thus, reduces the risk of water body eutrophication. The influence of phosphorus fertilizers on the biodiversity of soil microflora is also established. The dynamics of mobile phosphorus in various soils revealed in long-term field experiments can serve as a model of 2phosphorus transformation, which entered the soil from fertilizers in production conditions.