Change in soil available phosphorus in relation to the phosphorus budget in China

Limited information on soil available phosphorous (P) status has restricted rational P-management strategies, which are necessary to develop, budget, and control P fertilizer inputs. This study was conducted to quantify the relationship between the P budget (P input minus output) and soil available P content (Olsen-P) and its variation from seven long-term experiments that covered subtropical and temperate zones with seven crop systems and six soil types. Across all years and experiments, soil available P content increased linearly with increasing P budget (P < 0.01), and the increase in soil available P content in the 0-20 cm topsoil layer by each 100 kg P budget was 1.44-5.74 mg kg(-1) for the seven sites. This large variation can be explained by the different environments, crop systems, and soil physico-chemical properties. These results will help to predict long-term changes in soil available P using the annual P budget and provide useful information for proper management of P fertilizer.