Is the atmosphere an important source of phosphorusin northern Poland?

Abstract

In this paper we determined the phosphorus (P) concentration in precipitation, and calculated the annual P deposition rate at three study sites located in northern Poland. We observed that the mean annual volume-weighted concentration of mineral phosphorus (Pmin) in wet deposition varies from site to site. The estimated annual wet deposition rate of Pmin in the study region amounted from 0.1 to 0.39 kg/ha. The concentration and deposition rate of Pmin in the southern part of the study region was significantly lower than that in the northern and central part. We detected that the Pmin deposition was strongly positively correlated with the fraction of arable land in the study site vicinity, and also positively correlated with the mineral P fertilizer consumption in the area. The mean annual volume-weighted concentration of Pmin in wet deposition varied from 0.015 mg/l in the area of the lowest arable land percentage and the lowest mineral fertilizer consumption, to 0.046 mg/l in the area where the arable lands comprise 84% of agricultural land, and mineral P fertilizer consumption exceeded 33 kg/ha. In the P soil surface balance the atmospheric wet deposition represents 2.1-5.6% of annual total inputs of total P. The level of atmospheric P input varies widely by catchment and is related to land use (fertilizing, intensity and type of crop production).