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Soil phosphorus forms under systems of sole corn and corn-bean intercrop under organic and mineral fertilizer

Soil management systems affect the P dynamics in content and forms. The aim of this work was to measure the effect of several cultivations systems in the long term (16 years) on the different soil P forms. The treatments consisted of combinations of the two cultivation systems: sole corn (C) and corn-bean intercrop (CB), with two levels (0 and 1) of organic fertilizer (OF), at rates of 0 and 40 m³ ha-1 year-1 and three levels (0, 1, 2) of mineral fertilizer (MF) N-P-K, in the doses 0, 250 and 500 kg ha-1 of the formula 4-14-8. An area under Atlantic Forest was used as reference of a balanced state. The values of total organic P (Pto) changed from 184.2 to 280.2 and from 184.4 to 282.9 mg kg-1 in 0-10 and 10-20 cm deep soil, respectively. The highest values were observed for 500 kg ha-1 of mineral fertilizer + organic fertilizer, corresponding on average to 26.4 % P in the soil. The C/Pto ratio of the treatments tended to be constant. An increase of the Pto values with the increase of the soil organic carbon content was observed. The mineral fertilizer promoted P increment in the microbial biomass (Pmb) in the sole corn crop system. The increase of Pmb was 262 and 164 % of the system that received the organic compost in the sole corn crop and corn-bean intercrop, respectively. On average, the fraction of organic soluble P corresponded to 90 % Pto, prevailing over the basic soluble fraction. The 500 kg ha-1 of mineral fertilizer and 500 kg ha-1 of mineral fertilizer + organic fertilizer treatments in the intercrop system caused increases in the total labile P (Plt) values of 53 and 157 %, respectively, compared to the reference. The labile organic P fraction (Plo) corresponded to 3.7 % of Pto for the cultivation systems; for the Atlantic Forest soil this relationship was 10.7 % at both depths. The increments in the contents of most labile P forms, owing to the organic manure, demonstrate the importance of this management system for an improvement of the P cycle.

organic P; microbial biomass; labile P; intercrop


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