Phosphorus Essay

Words: 1173
Pages: 5

Summary
We examined the effects of nine grass, legumes and herbs species on phosphorus mobilisation from soil to water either as a dissolved element or as a fraction adsorbed on soil particles.
There were no significant differences between combinations of those plant species with the exception of two treatments. As the experimental plots have only recently been sowed with the plants, there is need for more phosphorus assessments in the short- and long-term for an objective evaluation.

INTRODUCTION
What is phosphorus?
Phosphorus (P) is a non-metal chemical element, discovered by Hennig Brand in 1669, which belongs to the group 15 (pnictogens or pnictides) of the periodic table of elements (Corbridge, 1995).
In nature P is found as a component of
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Phosphorus loss in water may be difficult to predict. Borda et al. (2010) found that phosphorus loss was not strongly correlated to suspended sediment mobilisation. This opposes our observation that the lowest and highest PP mean values correspond to the lowest and greatest SS mean values. However, our finding that PP mean values were greater than the respective DRP and DOP values is supported by Borda et al., (2011) who found that the most important P fraction mobilised by runoff was PP (92% of TP). On the contrary, Withers et al., (2007) found that there are variations in P runoff transfer which are influenced by soil parameters such as pH, presence of sesquioxides and organic matter.
Withers et al., (2007) reports lower SS mean values than the ones found in our trials (3.600 ± 700 mg kg-1 compared to our overall mean of 10450 ± 956.12 mg kg-1). However, this may be explained because of the different fertiliser programmes followed over a long period of time, the use of the plots for cultivating crops and the more advanced stage of plant development (Withers et al., 2007; Borda et al., 2011).