Title | The biogeochemistry of phosphorous cycling and phosphorous availability in a desert ecosystem |
Publication Type | Thesis |
Year of Publication | 1986 |
Authors | Lajtha K |
Date Published | 1986 |
University | Duke University |
City | Durham, North Carolina |
Thesis Type | Ph.D. Dissertation |
Accession Number | JRN00044 |
Call Number | 00163 |
Keywords | biogeochemistry, calcium carbonate, chronosequence, dissertation, dissertations, Larrea, calcium carbonate, Larrea, phosphorous, Parthenium, calcium carbonate, Parthenium, phosphorous, phosphorous cycling, seedling response, calcium carbonate, theses, thesis |
Abstract | The geochemistry of the weathering, landscape movement, chemical transformations, and the plant availability of phosphorus was examined in a chronosequence of soils developed from quartz monzonite alluvium in southern New Mexico. All soils contained pedogenic carbonates in upper horizons with caliche layers at depth. Total P in the soil profile decreased with increasing soil age, and was removed from the ecosystem as readily as the most easily leachable base cations. Although Ca-bound forms of P decreased with increasing soil age, Ca-P remained the single largest fraction of total P in all soils. |