Revealing soil legacy phosphorus to promote sustainable agriculture in Brazil

Paulo S. Pavinato; Mauricio R. Cherubin; Amin Soltangheisi; Gustavo C. Rocha; Dave R. Chadwick; Davey L. Jones

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-72302-1

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Revealing soil legacy phosphorus to promote sustainable agriculture in Brazil

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Revealing soil legacy phosphorus to promote sustainable agriculture in Brazil

Paulo S. Pavinato, Mauricio R. Cherubin, Amin Soltangheisi, Gustavo C. Rocha, Dave R. Chadwick and Davey L. Jones

Scientific reports, Vol.10(1), 15615

2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-72302-1

PMID: 32985529

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Abstract

Multidisciplinary Sciences

Science & Technology

Science & Technology - Other Topics

Exploiting native soil phosphorus (P) and the large reservoirs of residual P accumulated over decades of cultivation, namely "legacy P", has great potential to overcome the high demand of P fertilisers in Brazilian cropping systems. Long-term field experiments have shown that a large proportion (> 70%) of the surplus P added via fertilisers remains in the soil, mainly in forms not readily available to crops. An important issue is if the amount of legacy P mobilized from soil is sufficient for the crop nutritional demand and over how long this stored soil P can be effectively 'mined' by crops in a profitable way. Here we mapped the spatial-temporal distribution of legacy P over the past 50 years, and discussed possible agricultural practices that could increase soil legacy P usage by plants in Brazil. Mineral fertiliser and manure applications have resulted in similar to 33.4 Tg of legacy P accumulated in the agricultural soils from 1967 to 2016, with a current annual surplus rate of 1.6 Tg. Following this same rate, soil legacy P may reach up to 106.5 Tg by 2050. Agricultural management practices to enhance soil legacy P usage by crops includes increasing soil pH by liming, crop rotation, double-cropping, inter-season cover crops, no-tillage system and use of modern fertilisers, in addition to more efficient crop varieties and inoculation with P solubilising microorganisms. The adoption of these practices could increase the use efficiency of P, substantially reducing the new input of fertilisers and thus save up to 31.8 Tg of P fertiliser use (US$ 20.8 billion) in the coming decades. Therefore, exploring soil legacy P is imperative to reduce the demand for mineral fertilisers while promoting long-term P sustainability in Brazil.

Details

Title: Revealing soil legacy phosphorus to promote sustainable agriculture in Brazil
Authors/Creators: Paulo S. Pavinato - University of Sao Paulo
Mauricio R. Cherubin - University of Sao Paulo
Amin Soltangheisi - University of Sao Paulo
Gustavo C. Rocha - University of Sao Paulo
Dave R. Chadwick - Bangor University
Davey L. Jones - Bangor University
Publication Details: Scientific reports, Vol.10(1), 15615
Publisher: Springer Nature
Number of pages: 11
Grant note: 2017/04186-2 / Sao Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP); Fundacao de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo (FAPESP)
Identifiers: 991005560327307891
Murdoch Affiliation: Centre for Sustainable Farming Systems
Language: English
Resource Type: Journal article

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Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Citation topics: 3 Agriculture, Environment & Ecology; 3.45 Soil Science; 3.45.473 Soil Phosphorus Dynamics
Web Of Science research areas: Environmental Sciences
ESI research areas: Agricultural Sciences