Abstract
Being a macronutrient, phosphorus (P) is the backbone to complete the growth cycle of plants. However, because of low mobility and high fixation, P becomes the least available nutrient in podzolic soils; hence, enhancing phosphorus use efficiency (PUE) can play an important role in different cropping systems/crop production practices to meet ever-increasing demands in food, fiber, and fuel. Additionally, the rapidly decreasing mineral phosphate rocks/stocks forced to explore alternative resources and methods to enhance PUE either through improved seed P reserves and their remobilization, P acquisition efficiency (PAE), or plant's internal P utilization efficiency (IPUE) or both for sustainable P management strategies. The objective of this review article is to explore and document important domains to enhance PUE in crop plants grown on Podzol in a boreal agroecosystem. We have discussed P availabilities in podzolic soils, root architecture and morphology, root exudates, phosphate transporters and their role in P uptake, different contributors to enhance PAE and IPUE, and strategies to improve plant PUE in crops grown on podzolic soils deficient in P and acidic in nature.
Highlights
Acidic solutions of the Bray method (Bray and Kurtz, 1945), Mehlich (Mehlich, 1984), and citric acid (Thompson, 1995) can extract soluble and plant-available P forms as an indicator of P fertility status (Jones, 2001). These methods are designed for podzolic soils rich in Al3+ and Fe2+ minerals and slightly neutral soils (Ketterings and Flock, 2005) that are affected by soil management and environmental factors (Messiga et al, 2015)
Phosphorus-efficient plants may play a major role in increasing crop yields in podzolic soils because of low soil pH and non-availability of P, rapidly decreasing P resources, and growing environmental concerns
Podzolic soils have high P fixation capacities due to Al3+ and Fe2+, which is a big challenge in enhancing P acquisition efficiency (PAE)
Summary
Phosphorus (P) is a critical and important mineral required by growing plants to sustain their growth and productivity (Malhotra et al, 2018). Despite high P applications, PUE is only 15–20% in agricultural croplands, indicating that most of the applied P is not accessible for plant use (Malhotra et al, 2018). It is, important to review knowledge gaps to enhance PUE on podzolic soils in managed boreal agroecosystems. Exploring different plant adaptive strategies to enhance PUE is crucial to sustaining agricultural crop productivity and nonrenewable P reserves management to meet growing food and feed requirements (Ramaekers et al, 2010). We suggest potential strategies and interventions to improve crop P uptake and PUE on podzols in boreal agroecosystems for agricultural crop production and maintenance of high farm outputs
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