Phosphorus in agroecosystems on gray forest soils in the opolie regions of Central Russia

Long-term stationary field experiments revealed a poor supply of gray forest soils with available phosphorus, which provides no more than half the amount necessary for optimum nutrition of plants. It was found that agricultural crops with different capacities to assimilate phosphates from the soil and fertilizers have strong requirements for phosphorus fertilizers and abruptly increase their utilization in the production process with increasing level of nitrogen nutrition. Crops with the optimum level of nitrogen nutrition uptake a double amount of phosphorus compared to crops depleted in nitrogen. Clover and barley have an increased capacity to mobilize soil phosphates from the lower horizons at an extremely low content of available forms of them in the plow layer. Winter wheat and corn are characterized by an active uptake of phosphorus applied with fertilizer and its efficient utilization in the production process if the nitrogen supply is not a limiting factor. The level of phosphorus nutrition of subsequent rotation crops increases due to the enrichment of the root-inhabited soil layer with phosphorus from clover root and harvest residues. Based on the data about the unacceptably abrupt decrease in the application of mineral fertilizers in Russian agriculture (90% of fertilizers are exported now), it is shown that the export of fertilizers should be limited at the state level, because chemicals, and primarily phosphorus fertilizers, should be considered strategic resources for internal use only.