Ecology Colloquium Series - The Fate of Phosphates in Agricultural Ecosystems: Using 18O to trace phosphorus turnover in soil
April 26, 2017 @ 01:20 pm
to 02:15 pm
Curt McConnell, Penn State
104 Forest Resources Building
Event Website
Abstract Phosphorus (P) pollution from agricultural soils disrupts aquatic ecosystems. Current knowledge gaps on the fundamentals of P cycling in soils limit our ability to control P fluxes and therefore to control and predict P pollution. Over the past seven years, researchers have begun using 18O as a dynamic tracer to quantify turnover of inorganic phosphorus. I propose that coupling the Hedley Fractionation, 18O tracer, and UV digestion method will allow for the determination of both organic and inorganic phosphate turnover across soil fractions with differing phosphorus stability. This new approach will facilitate quantifying phosphorus dynamics in both P-saturated and P-limited systems, as well as the effects that crop species-type has on P turnover.
Contact
Dr. David Eissenstat
dme9@psu.edu