Shelterbelt systems play pivotal roles in providing goods and services to the rural community and the society at large, but phosphorus (P) cycling in shelterbelt systems is poorly studied, while P cycling and availability would be linked to the ecological function and services of shelterbelt systems. This study was conducted to understand how long-term ( > 30 years) land-use between cropland and forestland in shelterbelt systems affect soil P status. We investigated modified Kelowna (PKelowna) and Mehlich-3 (PMehlich) extractable P, P fractions (by sequential chemical fractionation), P sorption properties in the 0-10 and 10-30 cm soils and their relationship in six pairs of the cropland areas and adjacent forestland (each pair constitutes a shelterbelt system) in central Alberta. Both PKelowna and PMehlich in the 0-10 cm soil were greater in the cropland than in the forestland. The PKelowna ranged from 10 to 170 and 2 to 57 mg kg-1 within the cropland areas and forestland, respectively. The inorganic P fraction in the 0-30 cm depth was significantly related to PKelowna (R2 = 0.55) and PMehlich (R2 = 0.80) in cropland, but organic P fraction was not significantly related with neither PKelowna nor PMehlich. The iron (Fe) and aluminum (Al) associated P (Fe/Al-P) explained ~50% and ~45% of the variation of PKelowna in the 0-30 cm soil in the cropland and forestland, respectively. The Fe/Al-P and organic P fractions in the 0-10 cm soil were greater in the cropland than in the forestland. The differences in availability and P forms depending on the land use type in shelterbelts suggest that P management needs to be land-use type-specific for shelterbelt systems.
CITATION STYLE
Wadu, M. C. W. M., Ma, F., & Chang, S. X. (2019). Phosphorus availabilities differ between cropland and forestland in shelterbelt systems. Forests, 10(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/f10111001
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