Phosphorus cycling and spring barley crop response to varying redox potential

Abstract

Abstract For arable soils, it is not clear whether closing a controlled drainage system leads to P mobilization due to water table rise and associated changes in redox‐induced biogeochemical processes. Therefore, we investigated P mobilization at different redox conditions using three spring barley ( Hordeum vulgare L.) cropped lysimeters filled with monoliths of arable northeastern German soil profiles. Pore water samples were collected weekly from three different depths, and dissolved (<0.45 μm) element concentrations of total C, P, Al, Fe, Mn, Ca, Mg, and K, as well as inorganic and organic C (DIC and DOC) and P (P i and P o ), SO 4 2− –S, and NO 2 − –N and NO 3 − –N were determined. The total P concentration in pore water collected from a given lysimeter at a given time was 1.8 mg P L − 1 maximum. Organic P concentrations in subsoil solutions were positively correlated with Fe concentrations. Grain yield of spring barley ranged between 5.6 and 6.5 Mg ha − 1, and total biomass P uptake was negatively correlated with the stable P stocks of the soil profiles. Results suggest that reductive conditions in subsoils led to dissolution of pedogenic Fe‐(oxy)hydroxides and release of P o compounds, the latter of which were more important for biomass P uptake than P released from stable P compounds. Overall, closing the drainage at the field site could represent a moderate P mobilization risk, which would probably be lower compared with a P mobilization risk caused by a heavy rainfall event.