Legacy phosphorus and no tillage agriculture in tropical oxisols of the Brazilian savanna

Crop production in the Brazilian Cerrado is limited by soil phosphorus (P) supply without large inputs of inorganic P fertilizer, which may become more costly and scarce in the future. Reducing dependency on fertilizer P requires a greater understanding of soil P supply in the highly weathered soils...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Science of the total environment 2016-01, Vol.542 (Pt B), p.1050-1061
Main Authors: Rodrigues, Marcos, Pavinato, Paulo Sergio, Withers, Paul John Anthony, Teles, Ana Paula Bettoni, Herrera, Wilfrand Ferney Bejarano
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Brazil
Brazilian savanna
Cerrado
Fertilizing
Inorganic P
Legacy
New technology
No tillage
Organic P
Phosphorus
Phosphorus fractionation
Soil (material)
Tillage
Zea mays
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Summary:Crop production in the Brazilian Cerrado is limited by soil phosphorus (P) supply without large inputs of inorganic P fertilizer, which may become more costly and scarce in the future. Reducing dependency on fertilizer P requires a greater understanding of soil P supply in the highly weathered soils in this important agricultural region. We investigated the impact of no tillage (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) agriculture on accumulated (legacy) soil P and P forms in four long-term sites. Compared to the native savanna soils, tilled soils receiving regular annual P fertilizer inputs (30–50 kgP ha−1) increased all forms of inorganic and organic P, except highly recalcitrant P associated with the background lithology. However, 70–85% of the net added P was bound in moderately labile and non-labile forms associated with Fe/Al oxyhydroxides rather than in plant available forms. Under NT agriculture, organic P forms and labile and non-labile inorganic P forms were all significantly (P
ISSN:0048-9697
1879-1026
DOI:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2015.08.118