A. Miltner et al., TRANSFORMATIONS OF PHOSPHORUS DURING INCUBATION OF BEECH LEAF-LITTER IN THE PRESENCE OF OXIDES, European journal of soil science, 49(3), 1998, pp. 471-475
Some minerals have large PO43- sorption capacities. However, we do not
know how these mineral phases influence the speciation of organic P w
hen organic matter decomposes. To characterize the interactions betwee
n mineral phases and organic P species, we incubated mixtures of beech
leaf Litter and Fe oxide, Al hydroxide, birnessite, and quartz sand.
The samples were extracted with NaOH-NaF and analysed by P-31 nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy. Phosphate mono- and diesters ga
ve the most prominent signals in the P-31 NMR spectra. During incubati
on, the proportion of the monoester P decreased, whereas that of the d
iester P increased. Since NMR intensities assigned to teichoic acids i
ncreased, it seems that microbial P accumulated during incubation. The
synthesis of microbial compounds was strongest in the presence of Fe
oxide. All mineral phases investigated gave rise to a resonance in the
P-31 NMR spectra which was not present in the control treatment to wh
ich the mineral phases had not been added. The resonance was tentative
ly assigned to sugar diesters, which probably originated from organo-m
ineral interactions.