Isotope techniques to study phosphorus cycling in agricultural and forest soils: a review

A sound understanding of nutrient dynamics in ecosystems is required in order to manage these systems on a sustainable basis. A valuable approach to studying phosphorus (P) dynamics in soil-plant systems has been the use of P isotope techniques. Isotope techniques used for studying P cycling in agricultural and forest soils are reviewed in this paper with particular reference to advances made in the part 15 years. A brief discussion of the properties of P isotopes and their measurements is included together with techniques for measuring exchangeable P in the soil, dissolution and decomposition rates of inorganic and organic P sources applied to the soil, rates of organic P immobilization and mineralization, rates of P release and retention in the soil, root activity and lifter decomposition rates in forest soils, and gene probing and hybridization. Basic principles, assumptions, procedures, limitations and merits of methods are discussed. These techniques have served as or have the potential to be valuable tools for advancing our understanding of P dynamics in soil-plant systems, and for studying the molecular characteristics of microbial communities in relation to the cycling of nutrients in the soil.