%0 Journal Article
%T Phosphorus Fertilizer Rate, Soil P Availability, and Long-Term Growth Response in a Loblolly Pine Plantation on a Weathered Ultisol
%A D. Andrew Scott
%A Christine M. Bliss
%J Forests
%D 2012
%I MDPI AG
%R 10.3390/f3041071
%X Phosphorus is widely deficient throughout the southern pine region of the United States. Growth responses to P fertilization are generally long-lasting in a wide range of soil types, but little is known about fertilization rates and long-term P cycling and availability. In 1982, exceptionally high P fertilization rates (0, 81, 162, and 324 kg P ha £¿ 1) were applied to a loamy Ultisol in central Louisiana, USA. We measured vegetation responses at age 27 years and sequentially extracted soil P to 1 m to elucidate potential P availability into the next rotation. Loblolly pine responded well to the lowest fertilization rate; total biomass was 39% greater in the fertilized plots compared to the unfertilized plots, but higher fertilization rates had no effect, presumably due to induced N-limitations. What little fertilizer P was found in the soils was in the moderately labile NaOH fraction in the surface 20 cm, and may be slowly available to the next pine rotation. Normal rates of P fertilizer will maintain elevated available P well into a second rotation in loamy Pleisteocene Ultisols of the western Gulf Coastal Plain. Exceptionally high rates were not effective at increasing potentially available P beyond normal rates.
%K loblolly pine
%K phosphorus fertilization
%K phosphorus fractionation
%U http://www.mdpi.com/1999-4907/3/4/1071