2022-02-19 –, Biological and Medical Sciences (S2)
The seasonal heavy rainfall generates a flood in some agricultural plots. This phenomenon could modify the solubility of phosphorus (P), which is known for its low availability in soils. Furthermore, the risk of P loss in the environment would be expanded in high phosphorus soil. This study aims to evaluate the effect of waterlogged soil on the solubility of P in a high phosphorus soil of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia. The soils were incubated for four months with 11 sampling dates (0, 3, 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 49, 63, 90, and 120 days after incubation), three soil moisture regimes (field capacity, water saturation, and waterlogged), and two iron levels (iron addition and no iron addition). The results demonstrated that the waterlogged soil significantly increased the reduction of ferric to ferrous iron after two months of incubation. In this waterlogged condition, the available P such as water-extractable P (Pw) and P in the water column was higher compared to the field capacity condition. This augmentation of soluble P was positively and significantly correlated to the degree of phosphate saturation (DPS), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total carbon, C/N ratio, pH, Fe and As concentration in the water column, CO2 and CH4. However, the redox potential (Eh), the electrical conductivity (EC), the oxalate extractable Mn, and the Mehlich-3 extractable Al were negatively correlated with the soluble P. there was no difference significant for inorganic P forms between soil moisture regimes. Moreover, we observed an increase of soluble P, iron concentration, and manganese in the water column after 120 days of incubation. These suggest that the temporarily waterlogged soils increase the solubility of P, which is governed by the DPS, the reduction reaction, and the microbial activities through the emission of greenhouse gas.