Water Treatment Residuals and Biosolids Coapplications Affect Semiarid Rangeland Phosphorus Cycling

Abstract

Land coapplication of water treatment residuals (WTR) with biosolids has not been extensively researched, but the limited studies performed suggest that WTR sorb excess biosolids‐borne P. To understand the long‐term effects of a single coapplication and the short‐term impacts of a repeated coapplication on soil P inorganic and organic transformations, 7.5‐ by 15‐m plots with treatments of three different WTR rates with a single biosolids rate (5, 10, and 21 Mg WTR ha−1 and 10 Mg biosolids ha−1) surface coapplied once in 1991 or surface reapplied in 2002 were utilized. Soils from the 0‐ to 5‐cm depth were collected in 2003 and 2004 and were sequentially fractionated for inorganic and organic P (Po). Inorganic P fractionation determined (i) soluble and loosely bound, (ii) Al‐bound, (iii) Fe‐bound, (iv) occluded, and (v) Ca‐bound P, while organic P fractionation determined (i) labile, (ii) biomass, (iii) moderately labile, (iv) fulvic acid, (v) humic acid, and (vi) nonlabile associated Po Pathway analysis showed that humic, fulvic, and nonlabile Po did not play a role in P transformations. Biomass Po and moderately labile Po contributed to the transitory labile Po pool. Labile Po was a P source for Fe‐bound and WTR‐bound inorganic phases, with the Fe‐bound phase transitory to the occluded P sink. The Al‐bound phase additionally contributed to the occluded P sink. The Ca‐bound phase weathered and released P to both the Fe‐bound and WTR‐bound P phases. Overall, the WTR fraction, even 13 yr after the initial application, acted as the major stable P sink.