How phosphorus flows through an environment over many decades

in africa, the flow of migration and browsing of wildebeest is partly determined by how phosphorus flows through the continent. The animals actually prioritize eating grasses that are growing on phosphorus-rich patches. A species of grass growing on phosphorus-rich soil apparently is more palatable than the same species growing on soil low in phosphate. Not sure how the animals could tell.

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Chemical research is slowing down more and more. There are things chemistry will not explain. And that is because fertility is determined much more by biology, and about as much by physics. Soil science is going through interesting times. In particular, the topic at hand, big roots are formed by big association with myc. The effect is maximal when the tree or plant is planted into a soil with an existing network. Then the plant is instantly connected to other nearby plants, and deeper layers of water and nutrients.

There is a dramatic difference between planting into the network, and seeding the roots with spores. In the latter case, you are just creating a little bubble of myc. around the root ball, useful, but it takes a few months to develop, during which the plant only grows a little faster than a non-inoculated one. And the bubble takes time to connect to the network. You lose a season, not dramatic for a fruit tree, a large effect for a tomato, huge for low-root-surface veggies like onions.

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I thought the topic at hand is “How phosphorus flows through an environment over many decades”. :confused:

it was a sub-thread.

It seems to me there are a number of threads on this site to discuss “myc”, including this one: Important relationships between endobacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizae

As for the original topic here of how compounds (phosphate and phosphite in this case) flow through an environment, it is of interest to some us here.

This is a forum about growing fruit. IMO, the subject of P pollution’s connection to this forum is how and why it it used in growing fruit and how members may affect the release of phosphorous in the environment in the process of growing fruit. growingfruit.org

I’m a little confused about the article’s findings. It basically says that a lot of P ends up in the soil instead of the water, right?

Why would that be a problem? Doesn’t that just amount to the land being better fertilized? Unless it’s so concentrated that it’s burning the plants, it seems like the ecosystem should compensate by just growing plants faster. Is there some dry-land equivalent of algae blooms?

In the phosphate form it can tie up other soil nutrients, a difficult situation to remediate.

In particular iron, producing chlorosis.

It’s a poorly written article. If P is not getting into the water that’s a good thing. If P is staying in the soil that’s OK unless it’s farmland. If there is sufficient P in the soil why would a farmer add more to bring it to excess levels? P gets into the environment by waste more than fertilizer in some parts of country but that’s not news. If the author was trying to provide some useful info, I didn’t get it.

It’s a science reporter’s view of this publication:
http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo2693.html

I can understand the research now after reading the abstract. It’s a complicated issue with soil biology, soil type at various levels, migration directions of underground water and multiple sources of phosphorus effecting where the P goes and how much there is. Similar problems exist in understanding distribution of any undesirable chemical in the environment. It’s the responsibility of farmers to understand their potential contributions to environmental problems but waste management and industrial opetations can be the biggest source. For gardeners it’s good to remember that a good chemical can become bad if too much is used and can cause problems for very long periods of time.

This is why I am opposed to the older practice of “bringing soil nutrients up to level”. Instead I prefer to meet a plant or crop needs by foliar feeding or direct water-soluble application of appropriate nutrients to the root zone.