Measuring the Fate of Compost-Derived Phosphorus in Native Soil below Urban Gardens

Gaston E. Small, Sara Osborne, Paliza Shrestha and Adam Kay
Additional contact information
Gaston E. Small: Biology Department, University of St. Thomas, Saint Paul, MN 55105, USA
Sara Osborne: Biology Department, University of St. Thomas, Saint Paul, MN 55105, USA
Paliza Shrestha: Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN 55108, USA
Adam Kay: Biology Department, University of St. Thomas, Saint Paul, MN 55105, USA

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 20, 1-9

Abstract: The heavy reliance on compost inputs in urban gardening provides opportunities to recycle nutrients from the urban waste stream, but also creates potential for buildup and loss of soil phosphorus (P). We previously documented P in leachate from raised-bed garden plots in which compost had been applied, but the fate of this P is not known. Here, we measured P concentrations in soils below four or six-year-old urban garden plots that were established for research. We hypothesize that the soil P concentration and depth of P penetration will increase over time after gardens are established. Soil cores were collected in five garden plots of each age and quantified for inorganic weakly exchangeable P. Inorganic weakly exchangeable P was significantly elevated in native soil below garden plots (>35 cm deep) relative to reference soil profiles, and excess P decreased with increasing depth, although differences between garden plots of different ages were not significant. Our analysis shows that excess P from compost accumulates in native soil below urban garden plots. While urban agriculture has the potential to recycle P in urban ecosystems, over-application of compost has the potential to contribute to soil and water pollution.

Keywords: urban agriculture; nutrient; leachate; phosphorus; soil; garden (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/20/3998/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/20/3998/ (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:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:20:p:3998-:d:278235

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

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