Journal of the Indian Society of Soil Science, Vol. 64, No.

2, pp 148-156 (2016)
DOI: 10.5958/0974-0228.2016.00019.0

Phosphorus Fractions in Irrigated and Rainfed Agricultural

Soils of Central India
Kriti Shukla*, Bijendra Kumar, Asmaa Naaz, Chandravir Narayan,
Govind Singh1, Alok Kumar2, AL. Ramanathan2, Anshumali
Laboratory of Biogeochemistry, Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Indian School of
Mines, Dhanbad, 826 004, Jharkhand

Phosphorus (P) fractionation was carried out using sequential extraction method in twenty composite
agricultural soil samples to assess the soil fertility of irrigated and rainfed areas around Sidhi district,
Central India. The results showed alterations in the biogeochemical relationships between physicochemical
parameters. In rainfed areas, the high Si/Al and low Fe/Al ratios showed silicate nature of agricultural soils
along with low Fe loss from primary silicates. The relative abundance of P was as follows: Res-P > DNRP >
NaOH-Pi > HCl-Pi > HA-P > KCl-Pi. The P content calculated as the sum of different fractions found to
have an average variation of ±1.34% of the total P (TP) obtained by acid digestion. The concentrations of
inorganic P fractions were similar in the irrigated and rainfed areas. The organic P was relatively greater in
the irrigated soils. The sum of NaOH-Pi, DNRP and Res-P accounted for >70%, while Pi and Po accounted
for 55.3 and 43.3% of total P, respectively. The factor analysis revealed that the chemical fractions of P
were controlled by pH, clay minerals and oxy-hydroxides.

Keywords: Vindhyan system, soil texture, irrigation, phosphorus fractions

Crop yields in the developing world are consistently
higher in irrigated areas than in rainfed areas (Hussain
and Hanjra 2004). About 17% of global agricultural
land is irrigated contributing about 40% to the world’s
production of cereal crops (WCD 2000). In India,
approximately 48.3% of the cultivated area is under
irrigation supporting 234.4 million tonnes (Mt) of total
agricultural production. Irrigation and modern
agricultural practices secure crop production at the
cost of alterations in the soil characteristics, mainly in
arid and semi-arid regions (Assis et al. 2010).
Compared with other major nutrients, phosphorus (P)
is by far the least mobile and available nutrient to
microbes and plants in arid and semi-arid regions
(Qiong et al. 2008). Working with Indian soils,
Tripathi (1970) found that iron-P (Fe-P) and
aluminium-P (Al-P) were higher in the recent alluvial
soils than in the old alluvial, hill and forest soils.
*Corresponding author (Email: kritimay@gmail.com)
Present address
1
National Mineral Development Corporation, P.O. Donimalai,
district Bellary, 583 118, Karnataka
2
School of Environmental Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi, 110 067
Patiram et al. (1990) found that in acid soils of
Sikkim, among the different forms of P, Fe-P
dominated, being approximately 1.5 times of Al-P or
Ca-P, but Al-P and Ca-P did not differ much. Perumal
and Velayutham (1977) observed that Al-P and Fe-P
constituted 55% of the total inorganic P, whereas Ca-
P formed only 12%. Singh and Sinha (1977) found
over 50% of the total P in the form of occluded P in
highly weathered acid soils of Bihar. In acid soils of
South India, Vijayachandran and Raj (1978) reported
up to 40% of P in reductant soluble forms. Sahrawat
(1977) found that in Indian Alfisols with pH ranging
from 5.5 to 6.8, the order of soil P distribution was
Fe-P > Ca-P > Al-P.
Characterizing P forms is a prerequisite to
developing effective strategies to minimize the adverse
impacts of agricultural expansion in irrigated and
rainfed areas on the loss of P through surface run-off.
To achieve this, the P fractionation is widely accepted
technique to assess the chemistry and genesis of soil
profiles. Hence, this study aimed at (i) evaluating the
concentrations of P fractions, (ii) investigating the
relationships between soil properties and P fractions,
and (iii) ascertaining the mechanism of and capacity
2016] PHOSPHORUS FRACTIONATION OF SOILS OF CENTRAL INDIA
for P retention in arid and semi-arid soils in Central
India.
Materials and Methods
Study Area
The Sidhi District is situated on the North-
eastern boundary (between 22°47.5′ and 24°42.10′ N,
and 81°18.40′ and 82°48.30′ E) of Madhya Pradesh,
India which lies over a transitional area between the
Indo-Gangetic plain in the north and the Deccan
plateau in the south (Fig. 1). The physiography is
characterized by low hill, extensive plateaus and Son
river valley (a depository of the Gondwana rocks).
The average elevation of the area is 311 m above
mean sea level, the climate is tropical monsoon type
with three distinct seasons: summer (March-June),
monsoon (July-September), and winter (November-
February); the average annual rainfall varies from
1000-1200 mm. The total population of the area is
1.12 million with a density of 110 km-2 (Census 2011).
The total land covered in the Sidhi district is 4,720
km2 in which the land used for agricultural purpose is
47%, of this only 17% has assured irrigation while
Fig. 1. Map of study area showing sampling locations
149
the rest of the agricultural land is rainfed (NRAA
2012). The soils of the study area comprised of
Mollisols, Alfisols, Entisols, Inceptisols and Vertisols
with alluvial, red and black soil types. The crops
grown are rice, maize, barley, pigeon pea and jute in
kharif season, and wheat, mustard and lentil in rabi
season.
Field Survey and Sample Collection
Twenty soil samples (0-20 cm depth) were
collected from agricultural lands. In each field, a plot
of one ha was selected and five soil cores (5 cm inner
diameter each) of 0-20 cm depth were randomly
sampled from five points (north, south, east, west and
central) and mixed to obtain a composite sample. The
sampling was carried out in the dry summer season
(June 2013). All soil samples were air-dried, crushed
using wooden pestle-mortar and the gravel and relict
bodies were picked out.
Chemical Analysis
A sequential extraction of soil P was carried out
using modified procedure adopted by Jiménez-
Cárceles and Álvarez-Rogel (2008) which is a
150 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN SOCIETY OF SOIL SCIENCE
modification of the scheme proposed by Jensen and
Thramdrup (1993), Paludan and Jensen (1995) and
Paludan and Morris (1999). Chang and Jackson (1957)
used different extractants that divided the inorganic P
into a number of fractions i.e., water soluble, Al, Fe,
Ca, occluded Fe and occluded Al. The major
advantage of using this method over the conventional
methods is, only 0.1 N NaOH is sufficient to extract
simultaneously the Fe-, Mn- and Al-mineral bound P,
whereas the original method used dithionite-
bicarbonate to extract separately the Fe- and Mn-
bound P and the Al oxides-bound P from clays. Based
on this, we found dominant P fractions in different
areas. The P fractionation was performed with
unsieved fresh soil sample in order to avoid P
redistribution due to drying. Visible roots were
removed from the soil before the fractionation. The
following fractions were considered in the extraction
procedure: (1) After 2 h of shaking with 2 M KCl (pH
7), P fractions corresponding to the KCl-exchangeable
inorganic P (KCl-Pi), and a dissolved non-reactive P
fraction (DNRP 1) to organic P were obtained, (2)
After 17 h of shaking with 0.1 M NaOH, inorganic P
adsorbed onto Fe, Mn and Al minerals (NaOH-Pi)
and a second organic fraction (DNRP 2 ) were
extracted, (3) After 24 h of shaking with 0.5 M HCl,
inorganic P associated with Ca and Mg compounds
(HCl-Pi) was extracted and (4) Residual soil was
combusted at 520 0C for 2 h, ashes were dissolved in
hot 1 M HCl and the P was measured and referred to
as residual P (Res-P). All of the DRP extractions
(KCl-Pi, NaOH-Pi and HCl-Pi) are considered Pi and
DNRP1, DNRP2, Res-P and HA-P are considered Po
forms. The DNRP fractions were determined as the
difference between total dissolved P and DRP. Total
dissolved-P (TP) was measured after alkaline
oxidation of the supernatants with potassium
peroxidisulphate in an autoclave for 30 minutes. The
amount of P in all the extractions was determined
spectrophotometrically at λ=820 nm using the
ascorbic acid method (Murphy and Riley 1962). One
replicate and one blank spiked sample were also run
after every 10 samples to verify the precision of the
method. The relative standard deviation of means of
the measurements was around 5%. High purity
reagents (Merck) and milli-Q water (Model Milli-Q,
Biocel) were used for all the analyses.
The pH and electrical conductivity (EC) were
measured on a 1:2.5 and 1:5 soil: water (w/v) ratio,
respectively; bulk density (BD) by core method; water
holding capacity (WHC) by keeping fresh soil
[Vol. 64
overnight with water at a 1:2 ratio; soil organic carbon
(SOC) content by the Walkley and Black dichromate
oxidation method; the cation exchange capacity (CEC)
by ammonium acetate method. The total carbon (TC)
and total nitrogen (TN) by elemental analyser (Thermo
Flash 2000). The elements (Al, Fe, Ca, Mg, Mn, and
P) were analyzed by the ICP-OES (Leeman Profile
Plus) at NMDC, Donimalai, Karnataka. The particle
size analysis was carried out by Microtrac-
S3500 analyzer at JNU, New Delhi.
To evaluate the potential relationship between
various physicochemical parameters and P fractions,
regression analysis and factor analysis were carried
out by using ‘Statistical Package for Social Sciences
(SPSS), version-10.0.
Results and Discussion
Biogeochemistry of Agricultural Soils
Table 1 presents the results of physicochemical
parameters of agricultural soils of the Sidhi district.
The pH of soil samples varied from 6.6 to 8.0 spatially
and recorded higher values in the irrigated soils. The
EC and the CEC showed large spatial variation in the
irrigated soils. The SOC and SOM showed significant
spatial variations. The elemental concentrations were
found below the average earth crust values. Particle
size analysis of soil samples showed a diversified
range of sand, silt and clay with silt as the most
dominating fraction. The bulk density did not show
any trend and recorded high in both, irrigated and
rainfed agricultural soils. In the irrigated system, the
greater soil bulk density might be due to the combined
influence of greater wheel traffic resulting in the
compression of soil structure, hence lowering the
porosity (Carter et al. 1998) and decrease in soil total
organic carbon and soil aggregation (Celik 2005) as a
result of repeated events of sowing and harvesting (Li
et al. 2007). The mean value of TC and TN were
1.25% and 0.18% respectively. The C:N ratio varied
from 1.08-14.46.
The Pearson correlation analysis revealed
positive correlation of CEC with silt, SOC and SOM,
and silt showed positive correlation with Si, SOC,
SOM, Ca and Mg. This infers that the CEC is
determined by inorganic and organic constitutes of
soils (Table 2). The positive relationship between Al
and Fe, Al and Mg, Al and Mn, Fe and Mg, Fe and
Mn indicated their similar sources, as cation exchange
reactions in highly weathered soils are regulated by
dominance of oxy-hydroxides of Al, Fe and Mn.
 2016]

Table 1. Physicochemical parameters of agricultural soils

Sample pH CEC EC BD WHC Porosity Sand Silt Clay SOC SOM TC TN Al P Mn Ca Mg Fe Si
ID [cmol(p+) (dS m-1) (g m-3) %
kg-1]
RSS1 6.6 16.5 0.16 1.54 44.3 41.8 3.96 80.22 15.82 1.01 1.75 1.24 0.11 8.38 0.03 0.15 0.62 0.82 8.11 30.9
RSS2 6.6 18.5 0.11 1.58 21.6 40.3 3.92 76.66 19.42 1.28 2.22 1.46 0.14 6.63 0.03 0.12 0.88 0.59 5.90 35.6
RSS3 7.6 18.0 0.22 1.45 45.2 45.2 3.14 81.04 15.82 1.59 2.05 1.09 0.10 7.38 0.05 0.10 0.67 0.69 4.28 35.9
RSS4 7.8 17.0 0.26 1.54 37.7 41.8 4.01 76.44 19.55 1.09 1.88 1.06 0.98 6.56 0.02 0.11 0.26 0.33 6.41 35.4
RSS16 6.9 13.1 0.07 1.16 36.6 56.2 43.66 45.91 10.43 0.74 1.28 2.58 0.20 2.83 0.02 0.02 0.16 0.09 2.30 41.2
RSS17 6.9 17.0 0.08 1.68 27.5 36.6 6.45 77.06 16.49 1.07 1.83 0.49 0.09 3.59 0.01 0.03 0.16 0.13 1.53 38.4
RSS18 6.8 7.6 0.06 1.84 23.1 30.5 34.34 51.03 14.63 0.24 0.43 0.34 0.10 3.22 0.02 0.02 0.12 0.07 1.73 39.2
RSS19 7.1 18.4 0.06 1.69 25.6 36.2 41.34 47.10 11.56 1.19 2.05 1.11 0.14 3.14 0.02 0.03 0.13 0.08 1.34 40.2
RSS20 7.6 16.7 0.10 1.66 34.8 37.3 3.02 74.77 22.21 0.99 1.71 0.83 0.09 4.25 0.02 0.04 0.20 0.18 2.64 38.5
Mean 7.10 15.9 0.12 1.57 32.9 40.7 15.98 67.80 16.21 1.02 1.69 1.13 0.22 5.11 0.02 0.07 0.36 0.33 3.80 37.2
ISS5 7.1 16.3 0.90 1.63 42.2 38.4 1.72 53.31 44.97 1.02 1.71 1.24 0.10 7.45 0.03 0.11 0.19 0.32 8.10 32.2
ISS6 8.0 20.3 0.60 1.4 42.2 47.1 1.52 77.87 20.61 1.93 3.32 2.80 0.26 3.89 0.04 0.05 0.27 0.26 3.72 37.3
ISS7 6.8 18.6 0.30 1.36 48.4 48.6 2.46 80.06 17.48 1.38 2.39 1.27 0.20 6.18 0.05 0.06 0.32 0.41 3.53 35.7
ISS8 7.2 19.1 0.13 1.36 23.9 48.6 1.87 84.41 13.72 1.67 2.86 1.18 0.12 5.53 0.02 0.04 0.26 0.25 4.27 37.2
ISS9 7.9 16.8 0.13 1.54 38.1 41.8 2.02 83.89 14.09 1.26 2.17 1.00 0.09 4.39 0.04 0.07 1.19 0.32 5.81 37.5
ISS10 7.9 16.3 0.21 1.17 42.1 55.8 2.20 77.45 20.35 1.07 1.66 1.88 0.13 3.54 0.06 0.06 0.88 0.51 5.45 36.6
ISS11 7.8 15.7 0.12 1.54 34.7 41.8 2.65 70.10 27.25 0.77 1.32 0.61 0.13 4.87 0.03 0.06 0.28 0.35 3.22 37.5
ISS12 7.6 12.9 0.08 1.6 27.3 39.6 32.79 56.10 11.11 0.61 1.07 0.71 0.12 2.98 0.04 0.05 0.20 0.19 3.02 39.0
ISS13 6.9 18.2 0.07 1.63 42.2 38.4 1.65 70.25 28.10 1.16 2.01 0.84 0.14 5.90 0.02 0.11 0.21 0.31 4.31 35.9
PHOSPHORUS FRACTIONATION OF SOILS OF CENTRAL INDIA

ISS14 7.3 18.8 0.29 1.42 32.8 46.4 7.20 76.53 16.27 1.53 2.65 1.84 0.19 5.96 0.05 0.07 0.24 0.33 4.71 35.6
ISS15 7.5 19.3 0.18 1.41 46.1 46.7 3.07 78.93 18.00 1.33 2.31 1.50 0.14 7.82 0.03 0.07 0.32 0.48 5.07 34.2
Mean 7.45 17.5 0.27 1.46 38.2 44.9 5.38 73.54 21.09 1.25 2.13 1.35 0.15 5.32 0.04 0.07 0.40 0.34 4.66 36.2
151
 152 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN SOCIETY OF SOIL SCIENCE [Vol. 64

Si
The linear positive statistical relationship

1
between P/Al and Fe/Al (Fig. 2) indicated that the
authigenic iron oxy-hydroxides have a high capacity

-0.87
Fe

to adsorb P onto their surface (Likjlema 1980). Thus,

1
precipitation and accumulation of authigenic iron-

-0.77
0.71
oxides caused a corresponding increase in P/Al and
Mg

1
Fe/Al and appeared to be the main processes
explaining the variability observed in the agricultural

-0.27
0.50
0.62
Ca

1
soils. This suggested that the increase of P
concentration over the background composition may

-0.85
0.42

0.85
0.80
Mn

linked with the increase in Fe across the same

1
background material.

-0.26
0.51

0.30
0.50
0.19
P

-0.90
0.22
0.15

0.75
0.77
0.83
Al

Fe/Al
-0.14
-0.13

-0.03

-0.09
0.15

0.22
0.22
TN

1
-0.02

-0.02

-0.02
0.11

0.17
0.11

0.36

0.12
TC

1
SOM

-0.28
0.16

0.23
0.51

0.33
0.10

0.25

0.23
0.17
1

P/Al×1000
-0.29

Fig. 2. Linear relationship between P/Al×1000 versus Fe/Al

SOC

0.23

0.23
0.37
0.49
0.07

0.34
0.97

0.33
0.21
1

-0.11
-0.08
-0.01

-0.02

-0.51
Clay

0.39

0.46
0.01

0.12
0.00

0.42

Phosphorus Fractions in Irrigated and Rainfed Agri-

1

cultural Soils
-0.05

-0.46

Table 3 presents the results of P fractionation of

0.47

0.52

0.38
0.61

0.59
0.64

0.37
0.10

0.34
0.04
Silt

agricultural soil samples around Sidhi district. The P

content calculated as the sum of different fractions
-0.62

-0.39
-0.54

-0.58
-0.58
-0.56

-0.54
-0.08

-0.28
-0.85
-0.49
Sand

0.01

0.67
1

(ΣP) showed an average variation of ±1.34% of the

TP (Table 3). Most of the P was found in the Res-P
Table 2. Pearson correlation between physicochemical parameters

Porosity

-0.13

-0.06

-0.03
-0.19

fraction (29.9%) followed by DNRP (24.6%), NaOH-

0.04

0.25
0.37

0.27
0.17
0.75
0.40
0.27

0.08

0.52
1

Pi (24.3%), HCl-Pi (19.2%), HA-P (1.6%), and KCl-

Pi (<1%). The Po and Pi accounted for 55.3% and
-0.04

-0.25
-0.37

-0.27
-0.17
-0.75
-0.27

-0.40

-0.08

-0.52
0.13

0.06

0.03
0.19
BD

43.3% of TP, respectively. The NaOH-Pi, DNRP and

-1
1

Res-P accounted for more than 70% of the TP in the

study area. Assis et al. (2010) reported 19 to 59% Po
WHC

-0.46
-0.44

-0.53
0.49

0.19
0.44

0.24

0.51
0.33

0.33

0.41

0.44
0.31

0.11

0.46
0.33
1

due to higher transformation of Pi into Po fractions in

response to the addition of crop residues to the soil in
a semi-arid region of Northeastern Brazil. The Po
-0.37

-0.08
-0.11

-0.01

-0.50
0.34

0.35
0.43

0.13
0.11

0.38

0.29

0.50
0.35

0.12

0.29
0.70
EC

content in cultivated areas indicated a potential to

increase the P availability to plants by its
-0.61
-0.32

-0.38
CEC

0.91

0.45

0.37
0.27
0.34

0.32

0.32
0.61

0.90

0.36

0.28
0.09
0.14

0.21

0.18

mineralization (Harrison 1987).

1

The concentrations of Pi fractions were similar

in the irrigated and rainfed areas. The main pool of Pi
-0.26

-0.20

-0.04
-0.15
-0.25

0.19
0.18
0.18
0.25

0.25

0.27
0.05
0.24

0.16
0.26

0.39

0.21

0.03
0.15
pH
1

was Fe-Mn-Al (NaOH-Pi), which is redox sensitive.

Under anaerobic conditions, the reactive, oxidized
Parameters

species of Fe and Mn are reduced and chemically

Porosity

sorbed PO 43- is into the soil matrix (Jensen and

WHC

SOM
Sand
CEC

SOC
Clay
Silt

Mn
BD

Mg
TN
EC

TC
pH

Ca

Thramdrup 1993). The NaOH-Pi fraction was

Fe
Al

Si
P
2016] PHOSPHORUS FRACTIONATION OF SOILS OF CENTRAL INDIA 153

Table 3. Concentrations of P fractions in agricultural soils

Sample-ID KCl-Pi NaOH-Pi HCl-Pi HA-P Res-P DRP(Pi) ΣDNRP Po ΣP TP

RSS1 5.10 295.8 258.9 20.9 343.0 559.8 244.9 608.8 1169 1184
RSS2 5.00 280.0 252.9 21.0 481.4 537.9 387.7 890.1 1428 1460
RSS3 4.70 297.5 181.2 18.7 550.6 483.4 512.3 1081.6 1565 1593
RSS4 4.80 284.6 269.3 19.1 405.3 558.7 331.2 755.6 1314 1340
RSS16 2.20 263.5 177.1 9.9 42.5 442.8 16.5 68.9 512 515
RSS17 2.60 231.5 157.9 11.4 60.1 392.0 56.5 128.0 520 528
RSS18 3.10 201.9 156.4 13.3 90.9 361.4 77.5 181.7 543 555
RSS19 3.80 218.7 189.3 16.2 312.8 411.8 288.1 617.1 1029 1040
RSS20 4.00 255.1 213.5 17.1 152.6 472.6 110.3 280.0 753 761
Mean 3.92 258.7 206.2 16.4 271.0 468.9 225.0 512.4 981 997
ISS5 4.50 281.8 221.4 18.3 455.2 507.7 257.8 731.3 1239 1250
ISS6 5.20 271.6 228.7 20.9 522.5 505.5 506.9 1050.3 1556 1568
ISS7 4.40 260.9 207.7 18.0 310.3 473.0 250.4 578.7 1052 1093
ISS8 3.90 252.8 197.9 16.9 475.6 454.6 377.5 870.0 1325 1338
ISS9 3.80 249.9 183.0 16.4 398.2 436.7 384.6 799.2 1236 1246
ISS10 4.20 217.6 172.8 17.4 320.2 394.6 297.8 635.4 1030 1063
ISS11 5.40 219.4 181.9 22.9 339.8 406.7 290.9 653.6 1060 1062
ISS12 2.30 223.3 149.7 9.7 184.3 375.3 127.5 321.5 697 700
ISS13 3.10 211.2 172.9 14.9 143.2 387.2 134.9 293.0 680 684
ISS14 3.30 247.7 202.0 15.3 328.9 453.0 220.2 564.4 1017 1020
ISS15 2.60 217.9 165.7 11.1 187.6 386.2 161.2 359.9 746 752
Mean 3.88 241.2 189.4 16.5 333.2 434.5 273.6 623.3 105 1070

dominant over the HCl-Pi. The HCl-Pi is mainly
considered as a storage fraction, associated with Ca-
Mg compounds and also unavailable to biological
assimilation (Aminot and Andrieux 1996). The HCl-
Pi dominant the soil P pool in the neutral pH condition
and less weathered arid soils. Nevertheless, some
studies have shown mobilisation of HCl-Pi as a result
of pH decrease (Peng et al. 2007). Hence, inorganic P
released from Ca and Mg compounds in the soils
could have been transferred to the Fe-Mn-Al fraction.
The percentage of HCl-Pi fraction in the TP ranges
from maximum of 66% in the Entisols to less than
1% in highly weathered Oxisols. An inverse pattern is
recognised for NaOH-P fraction, indicating an acidic
and highly weathered Ultisols where sesquioxides
dominate soil chemical reactions (Cross and
Schlesinger 1995). The Po is relatively greater in the
irrigated soils and 53% of Po was found as Res-P and
this could be related to the detrital material produced
by plants and providing long-term P storage.
Factor Analysis
Principal component analysis of soil P fractions
revealed four factors (Table 4). The total variability
accounted for four factors was 85.3%. The first factor
(F1) contributed 29.7% of the total variance and was
strongly loaded on KCl-Pi, HA-P, HCl-Pi, TP, Res-P,
DNRP and NaOH-Pi. The F2 contributed 26.0% of
the total variance and was strongly loaded on Mn,
Mg, Fe, Al and Ca which indicated geogenic origin
of the elements and dominance of silicate clays in the
agricultural soils. The F1 and F2 revealed
biogeochemical cycling of P on reactive clay surface
rich in silicate minerals and oxy-hydroxides. The F3
explained 17.1% of the total variance, with loading of
SOC and CEC, indicating that organic matter
determined the cation exchange reactions. The F4
showed 12.5% of the total variance, with loading on
pH, Ca and DNRP. This indicated that P (DNRP
fraction) adsorption and precipitation with Ca
represented a stable pool under current land uses and
environmental conditions (Diaz et al. 2006).
Global Comparison of P Fractions
Based on absolute values of P fractions (mg P
kg-1 soil), a comparison of the present study with nine
soil orders is given in table 5. The comparison is
restricted to the surface soils collected from top layer
(0-15 cm). The global comparison shows that the Res-
P is major component of Po. However, the value of
Res-P is less than Pi in majority of the seven soil
orders, south-east Spain and Central India. This may
be due to geochemical reactions that regulate
accumulation of Res-P along the weathering gradients
(Cross and Schlesinger 1995). The Pi fraction
decreases along the weathering gradients from about
154 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN SOCIETY OF SOIL SCIENCE [Vol. 64

Table 4. Factor analysis of P fractionations

Parameter F1 F2 F3 F4 Communalities

KCl-Pi 0.90 0.25 0.09 0.20 0.92

NaOH-Pi 0.61 0.44 0.26 -0.17 0.66
HCl-Pi 0.78 0.37 0.16 -0.27 0.84
HA-P 0.88 0.24 0.11 0.19 0.87
Res-P 0.70 0.28 0.44 0.38 0.91
DNRP 0.64 0.18 0.47 0.53 0.94
TP 0.74 0.29 0.44 0.36 0.96
pH 0.11 -0.24 0.17 0.74 0.65
CEC 0.18 0.19 0.91 0.05 0.89
SOC 0.23 0.10 0.94 0.17 0.97
Al 0.24 0.81 0.32 -0.22 0.86
Mn 0.34 0.88 0.08 -0.08 0.90
Ca 0.11 0.57 0.00 0.67 0.79
Mg 0.25 0.86 0.16 0.19 0.86
Fe 0.32 0.83 0.07 0.08 0.81
Eigen value 4.46 3.90 2.57 1.87
% of variance 29.73 26.04 17.13 12.47
% of cumulative variance 29.73 55.78 72.91 85.39

Table 5. Global comparison of P fractions in agricultural soils

S.N. Author Study area P fraction (mg kg-1) Soil order

Organic Inorganic Residual Total

1 Cross and Schlesinger (1995) Alberta, Canada 80 256 254 590 Mollisol
2 United States 77 660 171 908 Aridisol
3 Sri Lanka 123 55 10 188 Alfisol
4 United States 47 399 158 604 Entisol
5 United States 64 250 200 514 Inceptisol
6 Quebec,North America 33 143 123 300 Spodosol
7 United States 189 157 89 435 Utisol
8 United States 70 385 281 736 Vertisol
9 United States 152 112 165 429 Oxisol
10 Beck and Elsenbeer (1999) Southern Alps, Switzerland 197 76 161 435 Spodosol
12 Jiménez-Cárceles (2008) SE Spain 317 663 630 1610 -
13 Assis et al. (2010) NE Brazil 17.1 45.1 - 62.2 Eutrophic
haplic
cambisol
14 Present Study Central India 268.7 450 305.3 1024 -

95% in Entisols to 65% in Oxisols. The Res-P

fractions are refractory or unavailable P forms
P fraction (mg kg-1)

containing non-hydrolysable organic and inorganic

compounds.
The positive relationships between the KCl-Pi
versus HA-P (r = 0.956), and KCl-Pi versus Res-P (r
= 0.534), an indication of the embedded exchangeable
inorganic P in the humic acid and refractory organic
fractions (Fig.3). This might be responsible for least
mobility and availability of P to microbes and plants
KCl-Pi (mg kg-1)
in arid and semi-arid regions of the world (Qiong et
al. 2008). Fig. 3. Linear relationship between KCl-Pi and organic P frac-
tions
2016] PHOSPHORUS FRACTIONATION OF SOILS OF CENTRAL INDIA
Conclusions
The physicochemical parameters show spatial
variation in cropping pattern, mode of irrigation,
mechanical farming, soil texture etc. The silty loam
texture and geochemical ratios show the dominance
of clay minerals in the irrigated soils. The NaOH-Pi
and Res-P are dominant P fractions in inorganic and
organic category, respectively. The NaOH-Pi fraction
was dominant over the HCl-Pi indicating acid to
neutral soils in the study area. A high concentration
of Res-P reveals recalcitrant nature of organic P in
the agricultural soils. Significant organic P fractions
indicate highly weathered soil and show potential
control on the mobilization and immobilization of soil
P as evident from their positive relationship with
exchangeable P fraction. It is clear from our results
that the organic P pool may represent an important
source of P in the arid and semi-arid regions of Central
India.
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Received 8 April 2015; Accepted 20 February 2016