Soil Organic Phosphorus

J. C. Tarafdar and A. Jungk, Phosphatase activity in the rhizosphere and its relation to the depletion of. soil organic phosphorus. Biol. Fertil. Soils J 199 (1987). 

B.-M. Finsching and N. Claassen, Root phosphatase activity and. soil organic phosphorus utilization by norway spruce [Pieea ahies (L.) Karst.]. Soil Biol. Bioehem. 28 4 1 (1996). 

Garland JL, Mills AL (1991) Classification and characterization of heterotrophic microbial communities on the basis of patterns of community-level sole-carbon-source utilization. Appl Environ Microbiol 57 2351-2359 Giuffre L, Piccolo G, Rosell R, Pascale C, Heredia OS, Ciarlo E (2001) Anthropogenic effect on soil organic phosphorus fractions in tropical ecosystems. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 32 1621-1628 Gottlieb S (1976) The production and role of antibiotics in soil. J Antibiot 29 987-1000... 

Oberson A, Besson JM, Maire N, Sticher H (1996) Microbiological processes in soil organic phosphorus transformations in conventional and biological cropping systems. Biol Fertil Soils 21 138-148... 

Dalai, R.C. (1977) Soil organic phosphorus. Advances in Agronomy 29, 83-11 7. 

Harrison, A. F. (1987). Soil Organic Phosphorus. A Review of World Literature. CABI Publishers, Wallingford, UK. 

Tarafdar. J. C., and Jungk, A. (1987). Phosphatase activity in the rhizosphere and its relation to the depletion of soil organic phosphorus. Biol. Fertil. Soils 3, 199-204. Thomas, S., Mahammedi, D., Clairotte, M., Benedetti, M. F., Cas tree-Rouelle, M., Persin,... 

Condron, L.M., Turner, B.L. and Cade-Menun, B.J. (2005) Chemistry and dynamics of soil organic phosphorus. In Sims, J.T. and Sharpley, A.N. (eds) Phosphorus Agriculture and the Environment ASA/CSSA/ SSSA, Madison, Wisconsin. 

Cosgrove, D.J. (1959a) The chemical nature of soil organic phosphorus. II. Characterization of the supposed DL-c/i/ra-inositol hexaphosphate component of soil phytate as D-cfi/ro-inositol hexaphosphate. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 1, 325-327. 

Turner, B.L., McKelvie, I.D. and Haygarth, P.M. (2002) Characterisation of water-extractable soil organic phosphorus by phosphatase hydrolysis. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 34, 29-37. 

Solution NMR uses extracts of soils and environmental samples. As with any extraction procedure for soil organic phosphorus, there is always the risk of hydrolysis (Turner et aL, 2003b). There is little agreement on the most suitable extractant, but those in use include sodium hydroxide (Newman and Tate, 1980 Hawkes et aL, 1984), Bu NOH (Emsley and Niazi, 1983), the cation exchange resin Chelex in water (Adams and Byrne, 1989 Condron et aL, 1996), sodium hydroxide plus Chelex (Gressel et aL, 1996), sodium hydroxide plus sodium fluoride (Sumann et aL, 1998), and sodium hydroxide plus EDTA (Cade-... 

Makarov, M.L, Haumaier, L. and Zech, W. (2002b) Nature of soil organic phosphorus an assessment of peak assignments in the diester region of P NMR spectra. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 34, 1467-1477. 

Pant, H.K., Warman, P.R. and Nowak, J. (1999) Identification of soil organic phosphorus by P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis 30, 757-772. 

Sumann, M., Amelung, W., Haumaier, L. and Zech, W. (1 998) Climatic effects on soil organic phosphorus in the North American Great Plains identified by phosphorus-31 nuclear magnetic resonance. Soil Science Society of America Journal 62, 1580-1586. 

The inositol hexa- and pentakisphos-phates are prevalent in soils compared to lower-order esters, probably because stability in the soil is linked to the number of phosphate groups. The most widespread stereoisomer is myo-inositol (Dalai, 1977). Inositol phosphates are more resistant to mineralization than the other fractions of the soil organic phosphorus and, therefore, are probably poorly available to plants (Williams and Anderson, 1968). They are present in soils in highly complex forms associated with clay minerals, fulvic and humic acids (Anderson and Arlidge, 1962), proteins and some metallic ions (Rojo et al., 1990). The various forms of inositol phosphates are often imprecisely referred to as phytic acid, which is reserved exclusively for the free acid form of myo-inositol hexakisphosphate. Salt forms of myo-inositol hexakisphosphate, also known as phytates, are very stable and consequently accumu-... 

Phospholipid concentrations vary from 0.2 to 14 mg P/kg soil (Kowalenko and Mc-Kercher, 1971a). These represent between 0.5% and 7% of the soil organic phosphorus, with an average of 1% (Anderson and Malcolm, 1974). The soil phospholipids may be of microbial, plant or animal origin. Their synthesis and degradation in soil may be quite rapid. Phosphoglycerides (phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanol-amine) seem to be prevalent and may represent up to 40% of the phospholipids (Dalai, 1977). 

Less than 3% of soil organic phosphorus is present as nucleic acids and derivatives derived from the decomposition of living organisms (Dalai, 1977). The four bases of DNA have been identified in humic acids (Anderson, 1961). The presence of nucleic acids and derivatives in the soil was confirmed by the isolation of two pyrimidine nucleoside diphosphates (Anderson, 1970). Nucleic acids are rapidly mineralized, re-synthesized and combined with other soil constituents, or incorporated into microbial biomass (Anderson and Malcolm, 1974). Nevertheless, the interaction of nucleases with soil constituents can inhibit DNA hydrolysis, with important environmental consequences related to extracellular gene uptake by bacteria (Demanfeche et al., 2001). 

Potential Use of Soil Organic Phosphorus by Plants and Microorganisms... 

Matumoto-Pintro, 1996). This shows that some knowledge of the molecular properties of the phosphohydrolases of a given species can allow prediction of the use of soil organic phosphorus for plant nutrition. 

Pant, H.K. and Warman, P.R. (2000) Enzymatic hydrolysis of soil organic phosphorus by immobilized phosphatases. Biology and Fertility of Soils 30, 306-31 1. 

Besides naturally occurring organic phosphorus compounds, the soil organic phosphorus concentration can be increased by manure and slurry application and, to a lesser extent, by the use of phosphorus-containing pesticides. Many soils receive animal manure, in which typical phosphorus concentrations are many times... 

Stewart, J.W.B. and Tiessen, T. (1987) Dynamics of soil organic phosphorus. Biogeochemistry 4, 1-50. 

The mineralization of microbial phosphorus is treated in detail above, and organic phosphorus mineralization is also addressed elsewhere in this volume (Nziguheba and Biinemann, Chapter 11 Condron and Tiessen, Chapter 13). Therefore, we focus here on some quantitative aspects of soil organic phosphorus mineralization and summarize studies where the role of microorganisms in the decomposition of organic amendments was studied in detail. 

Plants therefore possess a number of adaptive features that enhance phosphorus acquisition from soil and these are postulated to be important mechanisms by which the efficiency of phosphorus uptake by plants may be improved. The ability of plants to obtain phosphate from soil organic phosphorus is of particular significance because, in most soils, organic phosphorus is a substantial component of the total soil phosphorus. 

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