Phosphorus Turnover in Soil and Its Uptake by Established Lolium perenne Plants

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Abstract
A technique is described for measuring the time-course of uptake of 32P from soil by Lolium perenne plants. Carrier-free 32P was applied to the soil and the 32P content of leaves was determined non-destructively every 1 or 2 days. When 32P uptake had almost ceased the plants were harvested and their total 32P content was determined. Well-established plants took up 10-40% per day of the phosphorus in the soil labile pool. The transfer in the soil from labile to non-labile forms per day always exceeded this. Since the amount of phosphorus in the labile pool cannot have been changing rapidly, phosphorus transfer from non-labile to labile and from labile to non-labile forms must have been going on simultaneously and rapidly. The half-time for phosphorus residence in the labile pool was about 1-2 days. The method has potential for the further study of phosphorus turnover and uptake in pots and in the field.