Phosphorus in 2D : Spatially resolved P speciation in two Swedish forest soils as influenced by apatite weathering and podzolization

• The cycling and long-term supply of phosphorus (P) in soils are of global environmental and agricultural concern. To advance the knowledge, a detailed understanding of both the vertical and lateral variation of P chemical speciation and retention mechanism(s) is required, a knowledge that is limited in postglacial forest soils. We combined the use of synchrotron X-ray fluorescence microscopy with multi-elemental co-localisation analysis and P K-edge XANES spectroscopy to reveal critical chemical and structural soil properties. We established a two-dimensional (2D) imagery of P retention and speciation at a microscale spatial resolution in two forest soil profiles formed in glaciofluvial and wave-washed sand. The abundance and speciation of P in the upper 40 cm was found to be influenced by soil weathering and podzolization, leading to spatial variability in P speciation on the microscale (< 200 pm) with P existing predominantly as organic P and as PO4 adsorbed to allophane and ferrihydrite, according to XANES spectroscopy. These species were mostly retained at sharp edges and in pore spaces within Al and Si-bearing particles. Despite the relatively young age ( < 15,000 years) of the soils, our results show primary mineral apatite to have weathered from the surface horizons. In the C horizon however, a large fraction of the P was in the form of apatite, which appeared as widely dispersed ( > 600 pm) hot spots of inclusions in aluminosilicates or as discrete micro-sized apatite grains. The subsoil apatite represents a pool of P that trees can potentially acquire and thus add to the biogeochemically active P pool in temperate forest soils.

Ämnesord

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Lantbruksvetenskap, skogsbruk och fiske (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (hsv//eng)

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Lantbruksvetenskap, skogsbruk och fiske -- Markvetenskap (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries -- Soil Science (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Phosphorus retention and speciation

Postglacial forest soils

Apatite weathering

Podzolization

X-ray fluorescence microscopy and spectroscopy

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)