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Plant Species Rather than Elevated Atmospheric CO2 Impact Rhizosphere Properties and Phosphorus Fractions in a Phosphorus-Deficient Soil

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Abstract

By 2050, elevated atmospheric CO2 (eCO2) could stimulate plant growth, but dwindling phosphorus (P) stocks in the soil could limit growth. However, little is known about how eCO2 could affect soil P availability and dynamics in P-poor soils. Here, we conducted a 6-week pot experiment where three plant species were grown in a low-P soil under ambient (390 ppm) and eCO2 (700 ppm) to investigate plant growth, rhizosphere properties, and changes in soil P fractions. Our results showed that under P deficiency, plant biomass, P uptake, and rhizosphere properties did not respond to eCO2. Changes were noted by plant species. Compared to the control soil (unplanted pots), rhizosphere pH decreased the most under wheat, while microbial biomass P was higher under blue lupin. Among plant species, the blue lupin rhizosphere exhibited higher acid and alkaline phosphatase activity as well as organic anion release. Soil P fractions were impacted by plant species but similar across CO2 treatments. Blue lupin accumulated labile organic P while depleted moderately labile organic P. Accumulation of labile organic P could be ascribed to microbial P immobilisation, whereas the mineralization of moderately labile organic P was associated with higher phosphatase activity. Wheat depleted acid extractable inorganic P the most, probably due to soil acidification and higher root biomass. These results suggest that plants can mobilise different P fractions irrespective of their chemical availability using morphological and/or physiological adaptations. However, these adaptations to acquire P from a low-P soil were not affected by eCO2. This implies that current P fertiliser recommendations to boost or maintain crop production in low-P soils would remain unchanged under future eCO2.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Stuart Larsen, the New Zealand Biotron manager, for his technical help to carry out the experiment. We also would like to express our thanks to Professor Mitchell Andrews from Lincoln University for providing guidance during the experiment. We express our gratitude to Joy Jiao from Lincoln University for HPLC analyses.

Funding

Mohammed VI Polytechnic University of Benguerir and the Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP) provided financial support for this study. R.W.M. was supported by the Our Land and Water National Science Challenge (contract C10X1507 from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment).

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D.T., L.M.C., and R.W.M. contributed to the study conception and design. D.T. carried out the experiment and collected and analysed the data. D.T. wrote the first draft of the manuscript, and all the authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All the authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Driss Touhami.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Touhami, D., Condron, L.M. & McDowell, R.W. Plant Species Rather than Elevated Atmospheric CO2 Impact Rhizosphere Properties and Phosphorus Fractions in a Phosphorus-Deficient Soil. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr 21, 622–636 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-020-00388-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-020-00388-7

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