Summary
A laboratory incubation experiment was carried out over 17 weeks to determine the effect of liming on soil organic matter. The amount of lime as calcium hydroxide [Ca(OH)2] required to completely neutralise exchangeable Al was found to be five times the standard lime requirement. This large amount of lime had a limited overall effect on the short-term stability of soil organic matter, causing the release of 1300 μg g-1 of C (1.7% total soil C) above the control during the incubation. Liming may have altered the potential availability of soil organic matter and organic P, as shown by a marked reduction in the extractability of soil organic P with sodium bicarbonate and sodium hydroxide. The latter was unlikely to be due to the formation of calclium-P artefacts, and may be attributed to the combined chemical effects of added calcium hydroxide and precipitation of exchangeable Al on the nature and solubility of soil organic constituents and organomineral complexes. The addition of lime increased the degradation of added oak leaf litter by 50%, from 3.2 to 4.7 mg g-1, as determined by CO2 evolution. The enhanced litter degradation indicated increased microbial activity in limed soil, but this improvement had only minor effects on the stability of native organic matter. This study highlights the need for further research into the relationships between the chemical nature of organic P in soil and the physical, chemical, temporal, and agronomic factors that control its turnover and availability.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams MA (1990) 31P-NMR identification of phosphorus compounds in neutral extracts of mountain ash (Eucalyptus regnans F. Muell.) soils. Soil Biol Biochem 22:419–421
Adams MA, Byrne LT (1989) 31P-NMR analysis of phosphorus compounds in extracts of surface soils from selected Karri (Eucalyptus diversicolor F. Muell.) forests. Soil Biol Biochem 22:523–528
Ahmed F, Tan KH (1986) Effect of lime and organic matter on soybean seedlings grown in aluminum-toxic soil. Soil Sci Soc Am J 50: 656–661
Alexander M (1980) Effects of acidity on microorganisms and microbial processes in soil. In: Hutchinson TC, Havas M (eds) Effects of acid precipitation on terrestrial ecosystems. NATO Conference, series 1, Ecology vol. 4, Plenum Press, New York, pp 363–374
Anderson G (1980) Assessing organic phosphorus in soil. In: Khasawneh FE, Sample EC, Kamprath EJ (eds) The role of phosphorus in agriculture. Am Soc Agron, Madison, Wisconsin, pp 411–431
Blaser P, Klemmedson JO (1987) Role of aluminum on humus accumulation in acid forest soils. Z Pflanzenernaehr Bodenkd 150:334–341
Brunner W, Blaser P (1989) Mineralisation of soil organic matter and added carbon substrate in two acidic soils with high non-exchangeable aluminum. Z Pflanzenernaehr Bodenkd 152:367–372
Carballas M, Carballas T, Jaquin F (1979) Biodegradation and humification of organic matter in humiferous Atlantic soils: I. Biodegradation. Ann Edafol Agrobiol 38:1699–1717
Carballas M, Cabaneiro A, Guitan-Ribera F, Carballas T (1980) Organo-metallic complexes in Atlantic humiferous soils. Ann Edafol Agrobiol 39:1033–1043
Condron LM, Goh KM (1989) Effects of long-term phosphatic fertiliser applications on amounts and forms of phosphorus in soils under irrigated pasture in New Zealand. J Soil Sci 40:383–395
Condron LM, Moir JO, Tiessen H, Stewart JWB (1990) Critical evaluation of methods for determining total organic phosphorus in tropical soils. Soil Sci Soc Am J 54:1261–1266
Curtin D, Syers JK, Smillie GW (1987) The importance of exchangeable cations and resin sink characteristics in the release of soil phosphorus. J Soil Sci 38:711–716
Duchaufour P, (1978) Immature soils and soils with little horizon differentiation. In: Ecological atlas of soils of the world. Masson, New York, pp 17–35
Gil-Sotres F, Zech W, Alt HG (1990) Characterisation of phosphorus fractions in surface horizons of soils from Galicia (NW Spain). Soil Biol Biochem 22:75–79
Hargrove WL, Thomas GW (1981) Extraction of aluminum-organic complexes. Soil Sci Soc Am J 45:151–153
Haynes RJ (1984) Lime and phosphate in the soil-plant system. Adv Agron 37:249–315
Hayes MHB (1985) Extraction of humic substances from soil. In: Aiken GR, McKnight DM, Wershaw RL, MacCarthy P (eds) Humic substances in soil, sediment and water. John Wiley, New York, pp 329–362
Hoyt PB, Turner RC (1987) Effects of organic materials added to very acid soils on pH, aluminium, exchangeable NH4 +, and crop yields. Soil Sci 119:227–223
Hedley MJ, Stewart JWB, Chauhon BC (1982) Changes in inorganic and organic soil phosphorus fractions induced by cultivation practices and laboratory incubations. Soil Sci Soc Am J 46:970–976
Jackson ML (1958) Soil chemical analysis. Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, pp 175–176
Jenkinson DS, Powlson DC (1976) The effect of biocidal treatments on metabolism in soil; V. A. method for measuring soil biomass. Soil Biol Biochem 8:209–213
Klemmedson JO, Blaser P (1988) Effects of high non-exchangeable aluminium on decomposition and nutrient release from chestnut leaves. Z Pflanzenernaehr Bodenkd 151:251–266
Klemmedson JO, Blaser P (1990) Effects of high non-exchangeable aluminum on nitrogen and phosphorus availability in a humus-rich acid forest soil. Plant and Soil 126:277–285
Oades JM (1988) The retention of organic matter in soils. Biogeochemistry 5:35–70
Perrott KW (1992) Effect of exchangeable calcium on fractionation of inorganic and organic soil phosphorus. Comm Soil Sci Plant Anal 23:827–840
Saggar S, Hedley MJ, White RE (1990) A simplified resin membrane technique for extracting phosphorus from soils. Fert Res 24:173–180
Schnitzer M (1991) Soil organic matter—the next 75 years. Soil Sci 151:41–58
Stewart JWB, Tiessen H (1987) Dynamics of soil organic phosphorus. Biogeochemistry 4:41–60
Tiessen H, Stewart JWB, Moir JO (1983) Changes in organic and inorganic phosphorus composition of two grassland soils and their particle size fractions during 60–90 years of cultivation. J Soil Sci 34:815–823
Trasar-Cepeda C (1987) Estudio de la veriacion y contenido de P organico en suelos gallegos. PhD thesis, Unive Santiago, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Trasar-Cepeda MC, Gil-Sotres F, Guitan-Ojea F (1990) Relation between phosphorus fractions and development of soils from Galicia (NW Spain). Geoderma 47:139–150
Trasar-Cepeda C, Carballas T, Gil-Sotres F, DeBlas E (1991) liming and the phosphatase activity and mineralization of phosphorus in an acidic soil. Soil Biol Biochem 23:209–215
Williams JDH, Syers JK, Harris RF, Armstrong DE (1971) Fractionation of soil inorganic phosphate in calcareous lake sediments. Soil Sci Soc Am Proc 35:250–255
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Condron, L.M., Tiessen, H., Trasar-Cepeda, C. et al. Effects of liming on organic matter decomposition and phosphorus extractability in an acid humic Ranker soil from northwest Spain. Biol Fertil Soils 15, 279–284 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00337213
Received:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00337213