BIOLOGI TANAH – BENITO HERU PURWANTO

II. PHOSPHORUS AND SULPHUR

CYCLING
 Bahan, sumber informasi, dan referensi
1. Jeffrey A. Baldock. J.A. 2007. Composition and Cycling
of Organic Carbon in Soil. Dalam P. Marschner and Z.
Rengel (Eds.). Nutrient Cycling in Terrestrial
Ecosystems. Springer. 409p.
2. McNeill, A. Dan Unkovich, M. 2007. The Nitrogen Cycle
in Terrestrial Ecosystems Dalam P. Marschner and Z.
Rengel (Eds.). Nutrient Cycling in Terrestrial
Ecosystems. Springer. 409p.
3. Bünemann, E.. dan Condron, L.O. 2007. Phosphorus and
Sulphur Cycling in Terrestrial Ecosystems Dalam P.
Marschner and Z. Rengel (Eds.). Nutrient Cycling in
Terrestrial Ecosystems. Springer. 409p.
1. Rengel, Z. 2007. Cycling of Micronutrients in
Terrestrial Ecosystems Dalam P. Marschner and
Z. Rengel (Eds.). Nutrient Cycling in Terrestrial
Ecosystems. Springer. 409p.
2. Marschner, P. 2007. Plant-Microbe Interactions in
the Rhizosphere and Nutrient Cycling Dalam P.
Marschner and Z. Rengel (Eds.). Nutrient Cycling
in Terrestrial Ecosystems. Springer. 409p.
3. Craftumber, B.C. 2001. Biology of Wetland Soils.
Dalam J. L. Richardson dan M. J. Vepraskas (Eds.)
Wetlandsoils: Genesis, Hydrology, Landscapes,
and Classification. Lewis Publishers.
Washington.DC. 414p.
Forms and Amounts of Phosphorus and Sulphur

 Phosphorus (P) and sulphur (S) are essential

elements for all living cells. Among the
biomolecules that contain P are nucleic acids
(DNA and RNA), phospholipids, sugar
phosphates (e.g. glucose-6-phosphate) and
molecules with an energyrich pyrophosphate
bond (e.g. ATP), whereas S is contained in two
amino acids (cysteine and methionine) and
various coenzymes, vitamins and sulpholipids.
 Major global reservoirs of P and S are the oceans and
the lithosphere, while less than 1% of both elements
are found in the three main compartments of
terrestrial ecosystems, i.e. the atmosphere, plant
biomass and the soil (Stevenson and Cole 1999). In
the atmosphere, P is negligible, as phosphine gas
(PH3) oc curs only under highly reducing conditions.
Relatively small amounts of S are found in the
atmosphere: hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and organic S
gases are produced by anaerobic bacteria, while
sulphur dioxide (SO2) is a product of industrial
combustion, microbial oxidation and volcanic
activity, with anthropogenic S emissions
representing about 55% of total S inputs into the
atmosphere (Zhao et al. 1996).
 The concentrations of P and S in plant biomass are
quite similar (usually 1–5 g kg–1 dry matter), and
above-ground P and S amount to about 10– 100 kg
ha–1 in most ecosystems. In plant tissues, S is mainly
in C-bonded forms such as amino acids, while about
one-half of the P in plants is present as nucleic acids,
followed by phospholipids and monoesters.

 Concentrations of P and S in natural soils range

between 100 and 1,000 mg kg–1, which is equivalent
to about 200–2,000 kg ha–1 in the top 20 cm.
Concentrations of P in fertilised agricultural as well
as some volcanic soils can be considerably higher.
 In soils, P is found largely in its oxidised state as
orthophosphate, whereas S exists in several oxidation states,
e.g. –2 for sulphides (S2–), 0 for elemental sulphur (S˚), +4 for
sulphites (SO32–) and +6 for sulphates (SO42–). The most
labile pool of P and S in soil is the soil solution, followed by
the microbial biomass, exchangeable inorganic pools, and
labile organic P and S (Fig. 3.1). The mineral phase of P
consists of primary and secondary minerals, mainly calcium,
iron and aluminium phosphates, while inorganic S is present
predominantly as aluminium sulphates, pyrite (FeS2) and
gypsum (CaSO4).

 The proportion of soil organic P ranges from 20 to 80% of

total P, while in most soils 80% or more of total S is in organic
form. The mineral phase is thus much more important for P,
although in highly weathered soils, more than 50% of total S
may be adsorbed to mineral surfaces (Krouse et al. 1996).
 b. Cycling of Phosphorus and
Sulphur in Terrestrial Ecosystems
 The cycling of P and S in terrestrial ecosystems is illustrated
in Fig. 3.1. Withoutplants or soil organisms, fluxes in the soil
would be small, since the chemical equilibrium between
different forms of P and S would be disturbed only by abiotic
effects, such as moisture and temperature fluctuations, as
well as through atmospheric inputs and leaching losses. The
microbial biomass has long been recognised as the driving
force in soil organic P dynamics. Plant uptake and microbial
immobilisation have also great potential to disturb the
equilibria of inorganic nutrients. In the case of S,
microorganisms promote not only immobilisation and
mineralisation, but also oxidation and reduction processes.
The soil fauna is less important as a nutrient pool but
increases the turnover of the microbial biomass by grazing
and predation
 Of the four input pathways into the soil
(atmospheric deposition, weathering of
parent material, fertilisation, plant and
animal residues), atmospheric deposition is
often the main source of S, with annual inputs
of >80 kg S ha–1 close to industrial sources
(Krouse et al. 1996). Atmospheric deposition
of P is generally negligible.
c. Microbial Immobilisation and
Mineralisation Processes
 Patterns and processes of microbial
immobilisation and mineralisation of P and S
have been studied primarily in incubation and
pot experiments, although some field studies
have also been conducted. In this section, the
main focus is on the similarity and differences in
immobilisation-mineralisation processes for P
and S, in on the similarity and differences in
immobilisation-mineralisation processes for P
and S, including a discussion of radioisotope
methods.
 Microbial immobilisation of P and S (as
opposed to the physico-chemical reactions of
sorption and precipitation, which remove P
and S from the soil solution) can be deduced
from a decrease in phosphate and sulphate in
the soil solution and/or measured as an
increase of P and S in the microbial biomass.
In the absence of net changes, the
incorporation of radioisotopes into the
microbial biomass has been used to
determine rates of microbial immobilisation.
 Numerous studies have shown that microbial uptake
of P and S is governed mainly by C availability. For
example, the recovery of 35S in the microbial
biomass of six soils 3 days after labelling increased
from 0–14% without glucose to 17–44% after
addition of 2 g glucose-C kg–1 soil (O’Donnell et al.
1994). Likewise, glucose additions of 3 g kg–1
increased the recovery of 33P in the microbial
biomass from 8% to 66% (Oehl et al. 2001a). In both
studies, the increase of stable and radioactive
elements in the microbial biomass was mirrored by a
decrease of element and tracer extractable with 0.01
M CaCl2 for S or H2O for P, but this decrease could
not entirely account for the microbial nutrient
uptake.
 In the case of P, phosphate in the soil solution, which
is in equilibrium with other inorganic P pools, is likely
to be the main source of rapid microbial P uptake,
while for S, a priming effect of glucose additions on
soil organic S was reported (O’Donnell et al. 1994).
Methodological problems in estimating amounts of
total and radioactive P and S in the microbial
biomass due to incomplete extraction, applied
correction factors and heterogeneous labelling of
the microbial biomass may, however, also be
involved whenever the increase in nutrient content
of the biomass is not entirely reflected in the
decrease in the extractable nutrient.