The Conversion of Inorganic Phosphorus Fractions, Phosphatase Activity, and Some Biological Properties in Sandy Soil Enriched with Minerals, Organic Matter, and Microbial Modifiers under Two Months of Incubation

This study investigated the effect of the inoculation of the soil with some phosphorus solubilizing microorganisms (PSM) on inorganic P fractions in sandy soil enriched with inorganic and organic amendments. A factorial experiment arrangement was performed in a completely randomized design with three replications, using two factors: microorganisms (control, Entrobacter cloacae, Brevundimonas, and piriformospora indica) and amendments (control, (5%) apatite, (5%) apatite + (3%) zeolite, (5%) apatite + (1%) molasses). A 60-days incubation was performed after the application of treatments. Inorganic P fractionation and alkaline phosphatase activity of soil were measured at the end of the experiment. Phosphorus distribution in soil was as follow: octacalcium phosphate > apatite P > dicalcium phosphate > Olsen p > aluminium phosphate > iron phosphate. The application of apatite increased all of the P mineral fractions. The application of zeolite-appatie was very effective and although did not increase Olsen P (probably because of the low cation exchange capacity of soil), had a significant effect (p<0.05) on other P forms and caused dicalcium phosphate to increase (69.2%) and apatite P and octaclcium phosphate to decrease (34.8% and 60.0%, respectively) compared to apatite application. Application of molasses resulted in significant increases in dicalcium phosphate and octacalcium phosphate (48.9% and 29.3%, respectively) and decreases in apatite P and Olsen P (62.1% and 63.9%, respectively). Microbial inoculation resulted in a significant increase in Olsen P and dicalcium phosphate and a decrease in octacalcium phosphate and apatite P; showing the ability of these organisms to increase the phosphorus availability. Entrobacter and Piriformospora indica were more effective than Brevundimonas. It seems that microorganisms in different substrates had used different mechanisms; such that in apatite and apatite-molasses treatments microbial inoculation resulted in an increase in alkaline phosphatase activity, but in zeolite-apatite treatment, pH had decreased indicating the organic acid production by microorganisms.