Phosphorus Availability and Potential Environmental Risk Assessment in Alkaline Soils

Heba Elbasiouny, Fathy Elbehiry, Hassan El-Ramady and Eric C. Brevik
Additional contact information
Heba Elbasiouny: Department of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Home Economy Faculty, Al-Azhar University, Tanta 31732, Egypt
Fathy Elbehiry: Central Laboratory of Environmental Studies, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Hassan El-Ramady: Soil and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Eric C. Brevik: Departments of Natural Sciences and Agriculture and Technical Studies, Dickinson State University, Dickinson, ND 58601, USA

Agriculture, 2020, vol. 10, issue 5, 1-18

Abstract: Soil phosphorus (P) is an essential element that is often limiting in ecosystems. Excessive use of P fertilizers has led to P loss from soil and introduction into the environment. However, the behavior and potential risk assessment of P in alkaline soils is not well studied. Therefore, soil sampling was performed in alkaline soils in the northern Nile Delta, Egypt. Three analytical procedures (i.e., Mehlich 3 (P M3 ), Olsen (P Olsen ), and Bray 1 (P Bray ) solutions) were used to evaluate P availability and potential environmental risk from P loss. Selected soil properties were determined using standard methods. Mean values of P extracted were in the order P M3 > P olsen > P Bray , and were significantly correlated with each other. The P M3 was the highest in silt clay loam and lowest in sandy and loamy soils. To predict potential P loss from the soils, degree of P saturation (DPS), soil P storage capacity (SPSC), and P stability ratio (P sat ) were calculated. Results showed the highest DPS was recorded in sandy textured soils, indicating that they have lower sorption capacity, whereas the SPSC was highest in silt clay textures; hence, it is likely they would act as a P sink. P sat was highest in sandy soils, which indicated a high risk for P leaching. Principal component analysis (PCA) performed on the data identified four principal components that described 83.8% of the variation between P and the studied soil parameters. The results indicated that silt was the critical soil characteristic associated with both P sorption and extractability in different textures of soil. The second component confirmed the positive association between the different soil P extraction methods (P M3 , P Olsen , and P Bray ).

Keywords: soil phosphorus; alkaline soil; soil texture; potential phosphorus loss; environmental risk assessment; Nile Delta Egypt (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/5/172/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/5/172/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:10:y:2020:i:5:p:172-:d:358164

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().