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Chronosequence of paddy soils and phosphorus sorption–desorption properties

  • SOILS, SEC 2 • GLOBAL CHANGE, ENVIRON RISK ASSESS, SUSTAINABLE LAND USE • RESEARCH ARTICLE
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Abstract

Purpose

Accumulated soil phosphorus (P) in agricultural lands due to long-term organic manure and mineral phosphate fertilizer input is considered one of the main non-point pollution sources to surrounding surface water bodies. A chronosequence of soils is a potent instrument for pedological investigation and allows assessment of the effect of duration of agricultural cultivation on the environmental risk to water bodies of P loss from soil.

Materials and methods

The present study was conducted to evaluate the impact of pedogenesis on the retention of P in a chronosequence (25, 100, 300, 700, and 2,000 years) of rice paddy soils located on the south bank of Hangzhou Bay. Batch sorption–desorption experiments were performed on the samples of surface horizons from this chronosequence.

Results and discussion

P retention differed moderately among the studied soils ranging from 17.8% to 22.6% when 2,500 mg P kg−1 was added. Subsequent desorption experiment revealed that 11.2% to 21.9% of the recently sorbed P might move into solution. The maximum P sorption capacity as estimated by Langmuir isotherm ranged from 521.9 to 850.9 mg kg−1, with a mean value of 726.2 mg kg−1, while the degree of P saturation was less than 5%. The results indicate that P sorption is influenced by soil development with the maximum sorption capacity of studied soils significantly positively correlated to the organic carbon content of these soil materials.

Conclusions

The pH of the soil decreased from alkaline to neutral with increasing duration of rice cultivation due to continuing decalcification. The organic carbon content in the paddy surface soil materials increased with increasing duration of rice cultivation. The maximum P sorption capacity also slightly increased with increasing duration of rice cultivation likely due to organic carbon accumulation in topsoils. There is a very low risk of P in these paddy soils moving to the surrounding surface water bodies. This study of some possible long-term impacts helps to indicate that rice paddy agriculture is an environment friendly and sustainable land use.

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Acknowledgements

A part of the experimental work of this research was completed by the first author when he stayed in Germany (May 2009 to October 2009). The authors express sincere gratitude to Professor Reinhold Jahn in Martin Luther University Halle–Witternberg for his great help and Philipp Roth in University of Bonn for sharing the data. The authors are also grateful to Ms. Hong Lu of the Cixi Agricultural Bureau, Miss Yueqin Cheng of the Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other members of the Institute of Agriculture and Nutrition Science, Martin Luther University Halle–Witternberg for their great help in soil sampling, experimentation, and valuable discussion about this research. The authors express great appreciation to Professor Yongguan Zhu from the Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other two reviewers for valuable suggestions and comments that have greatly improved this manuscript. The authors also express great appreciation to Professor Leigh Sullivan from the Southern Cross University, Australia for the substantial English editing of this manuscript. Financial support from Sino-German Center for Research Promotion Project (GZ518) and the research unit of DFG for 995 is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Environment, Resource, Soil and Fertilizer, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 310021, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Ping Zou & Jianrong Fu

  2. Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 210008, Nanjing, Jiangsu, People’s Republic of China

    Zhihong Cao

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  1. Ping Zou
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  2. Jianrong Fu
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Correspondence to Jianrong Fu.

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Responsible editor: Chengrong Chen

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Zou, P., Fu, J. & Cao, Z. Chronosequence of paddy soils and phosphorus sorption–desorption properties. J Soils Sediments 11, 249–259 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-010-0301-8

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