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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Legume can fix atmospheric N and sequester carbon. Some legumes are able to uptake sparingly
soluble soil phosphorus. Additionally, all those effects may contribute to a beneficial increase in
soil microbial activity. In this work three ground-cover treatments were imposed to an olive
orchard located in NE Portugal: Natural vegetation (Nat veg); Natural vegetation fertilized with
60 kg N ha-1 yr-1 (Nat veg +N); and a mixture of self-reseeding annual legumes (Legumes). Three
years after the establishment of the ground-cover treatments, soil samples were taken from the 0-
10 and 10-20 cm depths. Extractable soil P was determined by the Olsen and Egner-Riehm
methods, the acid phosphatase activity accordingly to Tabatabai and Bremner and soil organic
carbon by the Walkley-Black method. In the 0-10 cm soil layer, the acid phosphatase activity was
significantly higher in the treatments Legumes and Nat veg+N (7.81 and 7.30 f-Lg p-Nitrophenol
g-1
) than in the Nat veg (4.73 f-Lg p-N g-1
). Considering both soil layers, there was observed a
significant linear relationship between oxidizable organic C and the acid phosphatase activity
(R2=0.69). The P extracted by the Egner-Riehm method was better correlated \vith the acid
phosphatase activity (R2=0.42) than P extracted by the Olsen method (R2=0.31) when all samples
were taken into account. It seems that a similar effect of the legumes species on the add
phosphate activity may be achieved with the natural vegetation if fertilized with N.
Description
Keywords
Soil phosphorus Cover crops Legumes Olea europae
Citation
Arrobas, Margarida; Pereira, Ermelinda; Ferreira, Isabel C.F.R.; Rodrigues, M.A. (2013). The effect of legume cover crops on soil phosphorus availability. In First Legume Society Conference 2013: A Legume Odyssey. Novi Sad, Serbia