Nowadays, phosphorus natural reserves are being depleted, while P fertilizers demand is increasing. Phosphorus is well contained in waste materials such as sewage sludge. Only a small amount (1-3%) of the soil total phosphorus is bioavailable for plant nutrition. More in detail, the present study focuses on the determination of the kinetics of bioavailable phosphorus concentrations in a sandy calcareous soil after the application of sewage sludge. A centrifuged (C) and dried (D) anaerobic digestate from sewage sludges obtained from the same wastewater treatment plan were separately tested to fertilize a calcareous sandy soil. Falcon tubes (50 mL) containing negative control (T) and soil treated with C and D were incubated from 1 to 90 days. Soil phosphorus fractionation was performed with the SMT method and bioavailable-P was extracted through the Olsen method. Phosphorus was spectrophotometrically quantified by the molybdovanadate method. Lastly, kinetics of bioavailable-P on soils were evaluated using four kinetic models. Phosphorus fractions were constant throughout the experiment. Conversely, the bioavailable-P significantly decreased from day 1 to day 90 in C treatment (from 34.9 +/- 2.9 to 23.8 +/- 1.5 ppm) and T treatment (from 4.2 +/- 1.2 to 0.3 +/- 0.6 ppm). This decrease might be due to the precipitation of P with calcium; in fact, high concentration of Ca2+ ions and the alkaline soil pH can induce the sequential formation of calcium phosphates, even less soluble over time. Whereas D treatment showed a peak of bioavailable-P concentration on day 14 (26.6 +/- 3.0). This trend could be due to organic carbon compounds, competitive sorption and metal bridging. The fitting of experimental data revealed that the Elovich model best described the adsorptive-precipitate process of bioavailable-P in T (r(2) = 0.90) and C (r(2) = 0.93). Conversely, none of the models satisfactorily described the behavior of bioavailable-P in D samples. This study increases the knowledge on P-related phenomena for designing and optimizing fertilizers and reducing their drawbacks such as eutrophication.

Time-based evaluation of bioavailable phosphorus in a calcareous soil after the application of anaerobically digested sewage sludge

Cristina, G;Camelin, E;Salomone, F;Pugliese, M
;
Gullino, ML;
2022-01-01

Abstract

Nowadays, phosphorus natural reserves are being depleted, while P fertilizers demand is increasing. Phosphorus is well contained in waste materials such as sewage sludge. Only a small amount (1-3%) of the soil total phosphorus is bioavailable for plant nutrition. More in detail, the present study focuses on the determination of the kinetics of bioavailable phosphorus concentrations in a sandy calcareous soil after the application of sewage sludge. A centrifuged (C) and dried (D) anaerobic digestate from sewage sludges obtained from the same wastewater treatment plan were separately tested to fertilize a calcareous sandy soil. Falcon tubes (50 mL) containing negative control (T) and soil treated with C and D were incubated from 1 to 90 days. Soil phosphorus fractionation was performed with the SMT method and bioavailable-P was extracted through the Olsen method. Phosphorus was spectrophotometrically quantified by the molybdovanadate method. Lastly, kinetics of bioavailable-P on soils were evaluated using four kinetic models. Phosphorus fractions were constant throughout the experiment. Conversely, the bioavailable-P significantly decreased from day 1 to day 90 in C treatment (from 34.9 +/- 2.9 to 23.8 +/- 1.5 ppm) and T treatment (from 4.2 +/- 1.2 to 0.3 +/- 0.6 ppm). This decrease might be due to the precipitation of P with calcium; in fact, high concentration of Ca2+ ions and the alkaline soil pH can induce the sequential formation of calcium phosphates, even less soluble over time. Whereas D treatment showed a peak of bioavailable-P concentration on day 14 (26.6 +/- 3.0). This trend could be due to organic carbon compounds, competitive sorption and metal bridging. The fitting of experimental data revealed that the Elovich model best described the adsorptive-precipitate process of bioavailable-P in T (r(2) = 0.90) and C (r(2) = 0.93). Conversely, none of the models satisfactorily described the behavior of bioavailable-P in D samples. This study increases the knowledge on P-related phenomena for designing and optimizing fertilizers and reducing their drawbacks such as eutrophication.
2022
12
10
4361
4373
Sewage sludge anaerobically digested; Calcareous soil; Bioavailable phosphorus; Elovich equation; SMT
Cristina, G; Camelin, E; Garofalo, SF; Salomone, F; Pugliese, M; Gullino, ML; Tommasi, T; Fino, D
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1891855
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