T H E DETERMINATION OF ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS

I N SOILS
J. H. STEWARD AND J. M. OADES
(Department of Agricultural Biochemistry and Soil Science, Waite Agricultural
Research Institute, Glen Onnond, South Australia, 5064)

Summary
A method for extraction and determination of organic phosphorus based on a
pretreatment with I M HCl followed by ultrasonic vibration in 0 . 5 NaOH
~ is
proposed and shown to be generally superior to two commonly used procedures
in terms of efficiency and speed. Determination of organic phosphorus by the
proposed technique showed that almost a third of the phosphorus applied to a
red-brown earth growing a mixed legume-grass pasture has been incorporated
into organic molecules.
Introduction
ORGANIC phosphorus in soils is estimated by either of two indirect
procedures, ignition or extraction.
In the ignition procedure, organic phosphorus (Po)corresponds to the
increase in the inorganic phosphorus (Pi) which can be extracted from
soil by acid following the destruction of organic materials by ignition.
Usually untreated and ignited samples are extracted separately and
= pi extracted from ignited sample -pi extracted from untreated sample.
Black and Goring ( I 53) discussed the problems associated with the use
8
of this approach, an numerous publications have since emphasized the
existence of various factors which may each affect the final Po figure
(e.g. Williams et ul.,. 1970).
Using the extraction method, Po is the difference between the total
Pt) and the Pi in an extract of a soil. The Pi is measured
oxidative destruction of organic materials in the extract
and
= pi after destruction of organic materials -pi before drstruction of organic mabrialw.
Usually only an aliquot of the extract is destroyed (by acid digestion or
Na,CO, fusion) for the determination and it is thus possible to obtain
both quantitative and qualitative information from the same extract (cf.
the total destruction of the sample b ignition).
terms, the most eftyective method of extracting Po is
the highest amount of Po. This does not mean that
of the organic moiety attached to the phosphate has
not occurred.
NaOH is the most effective extracting agent of Po from soil, but yields
are usually greater when pol valent cations are first removed (Jackman
and Black, 1951;Black and Loring, 1953; Mehta et al., 1954; Saunders
and Williams, 1955; Anderson, 1960). The main differences between
these methods are in the pretreatments-whereas some workers used a
rather concentrated acid for the pretreatment (Mehta et al., 1954; Kaila
Journal of So11 Sclence, Vol. 23. No. 1, 1973
 DETERMINATION OF ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS IN SOILS 39
and Virtaanen, 1955; Kaila, 1962; Greb and Olsen, 1967), Saunders and
Williams (1955) and Saunders (1959) used dilute acid. Other workers
were concerned with avoiding hydrolysis of acid-labile phosphates
(Anderson, 1960; Harra , 1963; Dormaar and Webster, 1963).
B
Among other metho s of extraction that have been proposed are
extraction with 8-hydroxyquinoline (Boswall and De Long, 1959),
sodium bicarbonate (Maclean, I 65a), acetylacetone and ultrasonic
dispersion (Halstead et al., 19667 and chelating resin (Thomas and
Bowman, 1966). These methods do not ap ear to have any proven
8
advantage or increased effectiveness over Na H extraction.
Distinct limitations of the published procedures are the long times of
extraction and the large solution-to-soil ratios which are used. These
make routine analyses tedious and qualitative investigations on the
extract are rarely possible. Furthermore, none of the methods is con-
sistently superior to any other in extracting Po from soils and, in the
absence of a ‘standard’ method, comparison of results in the literature
is not strictly valid where different extraction methods have been used
(Dormaar, 1964, 1967; Maclean, 19653; Bornemisza and Igue, 1967).
Ultrasonic vibration has been shown to be an effective means of
(Olmstead, 1931; Edwards and Bremner, 196 ,
.4
the rapid extraction of organic materials from so1 s
1964; Swincer et al., 1968; Ford et al., 1969) and
rock fragments (McIver, I 962). The following sections describe the
application of ultrasonic vibration to the extraction of Pofrom soils using
sodium hydroxide.
Materials and methods
Soils were obtained from two sources :
Uwbraefine sandy loam. Six plots from the CI permanent rotation
trial at the Waite Institute (Waite Institute Annual Report, 1966-7) were
sampled to a depth of 6.5 cm in the summer of 1967. Fifty cores were
taken from each plot using the zigzag attern recommended by Jackson
P
(1958). The air-dry soils were gent y crushed (< 2 mm) and sub-
samp es were ground to fine powder in a Sieb-teknik mill. The soils
were stored at room temperature in sealed plastic jars.
Eastern Australian soils. Seven soils were kindly su plied b Dr. C. H.
Williams, CSIRO, Division of Plant Industry, Cangerra. $our of the
soils were the same as those used by Williams and Anderson (1968), viz.
2-37, 250, 253, and 315; the other three were closely related to soils used
by the same authors, viz. ROB-same site as 53 I , 350-same site as 3 8,
CH-same paddock as 641. The soils were also ground to fine pow er
and stored at room temperature.
2
General methods. Total carbon was determined using a Fisher Carbon
Induction furnace (Young and Lindbeck, 1964). Carbon figures for soils
250 and 350 were corrected for carbonate content. P, in the soils was
determined by X-ray fluorescence spectrography using pressed borate
discs (Norrish and Hutton, 1964). Total N was determined by a
Kjeldahl procedure. The soil pH was measured 10 min after shaking
the soil in a I : 5 (w/v) suspension of soil in I M CaC1,.
40 J. H. STEWARD A N D J. M. OADES
Pt in the extracts was measured after perchloric acid digestion by
Usher's adaptation (Usher, 1963) of the method of Bartlett (1959).
Inorganic P was determined by the method of John (1970) after the
humic materials in the extract had been precipitated in O - O O ~ MH,SO,
at H z for 10-20 min (Anderson, 1961).
$he difference between P, and Pi in the extract was called Po;all
P values are quoted as pprn P on an air-dry soil basis. Differences of
less than 20 pprn P between soils were considered to be not significant.
Ultrasonic vibration was performed with a Branson S-75 ultrasonic
generator operating with a power output of 75 watts and a frequency of
20 kc/sec at the probe tip. The tip was placed 5-10 mm below the liquid
surface and all samples were exposed to the vibrations for 3 min. All
extracts were centrifuged and the supernatant solutions retained for
analysis.
For the quantitative analyses quoted in Tables 3 and 4, where no
pre-treatment was used to extract Po,the calculations included an adjust-
ment for that material remaining entrained in the soil residue after
decanting the supernatant extract. The weight of solution entrained
was measured and its Poconcentration was considered to be identical
to the Po in the supernatant extract. The adjustment was calculated
assuming a density of 1-0g/cc for the extract.
In the extractions involving a pre-treatment, the residue after extrac-
tion with 0 . 5 ~NaOH was washed twice with O - I M NaOH and the
pre-treatment, extract, and washings were combined for analysis

Proposed procedure for extraction of P,

I . Weigh the soil (0.5-2 g) into a 20 ml polythene vial and shake for
I h at room temperature with I M HC1 ( I S ml).
2. Centrifuge and decant the supernatant liquid. Wash the residue
twice with distilled H,O, centrifuge and add the washings to the HCl
extract, then neutralize with solid NaOH.
3. T o the soil residue add 0 . 5 NaOH
~ (6 ml), stir thoroughly and
vibrate ultrasonically using maximum current for 3 min.
4. Wash the material adhering to the probe back into the sonified
suspension with distilled H,O and, after centrifugation, wash the residue
twice with O'I N NaOH, adding the washings to the NaOH extract.
5. Analyse the NaOH and HCl extracts (individually or after bulking
them) and calculate the results as ppm P.

Results and discussion

The eflectiveness of extraction by ultrasonic vibration
Three minutes of ultrasonic vibration in 0 . 5 NaOH
~ was as effective
in extracting Pofrom a soil as an overnight (16h) shaking in 0.5 M NaOH
at room temperature or at an elevated temperature (Table I ) .
The rapidity of extraction during ultrasonic vibration in NaOH led
to experiments designed to determine the best conditions for extraction
of Poby this method.
 DETERMINATION OF ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS I N SOILS 41
TABLE
I
Phosphorus (ppm)extracted from soil U I by~ 0 . 5 NaOH
~
using a solution-to-soil ratio of 5 : I
Pretreatment I Nil I 5% EDTA

70"
198
I20 113
85

The eflect of variation in the solution-to-soil ratio on the extraction of

organic phosphorus by ultrasonic vibration
Ultrasonic vibration is most effective when a small volume of liquid
surrounds the probe tip. U to a point where the viscosity becomes
P
limiting, the transmission o energy increases with an increase in the
amount of solid material present. Thus the optimum solution-to-soil
ratio is controlled by the water-sorption capacity of the soil, which
depends on the clay and organic matter contents. Changing the solution-
to-soil ratio showed that there was an optimum ratio for each soil above
which there was no significant increase in Po extracted. For the Urrbrae
fsl a 3:' solution-to-soil ratio proved to be adequate. The Eastern
Australian soils had a greater water-sorption capacity, and to achieve
efficient dispersion solution-to-soil ratios of 6: I (soils 250 and CH) and
12 : I (other Eastern Australian soils) were required. For routine analysis
a so1ution:soil ratio of 12:I could be used with most soils.

The eflect of high temperature on the extraction of organic phosphorus by

ultrasonic vibration
The results of Table I suggested that high temperature increased the
yield of Po extracted from soil U16. Data for other soils showed that
the Po extracted at 70 "C was never significantly higher than the amount
extracted at room temperature. I n two cases (315, ROB) less Po was
extracted at the higher temperature. There was also a decrease in the
P, extracted. The less efficient extraction was probably caused by a
lowering of the solution-to-soil ratio below optimum, due to evaporation
whilst standing in the oven.

The use of a sequestering agent with the extractant

The use of EDTA as a pre-treatment did not increase the Po extracted
from soil U16 (Table I). However, gluconate effectively sequesters Ca,
42 J. H. STEWARD A N D J. M. OADES
Al, and Fe in NaOH solutions (Sawyer, 1964). Since polyvalent cations
precipitate phos hates in soil, the addition of gluconate could aid in the
P
rendering solub e of some organic phosphate during alkali extraction.
The effect of adding 5 per cent (w/v) potassium gluconate to the
o M NaOH during extraction of Po is shown in Table 2. The amounts
;5
o Po extracted from the Urrbrae fsl and soil CH were not altered by
gluconate; the results with soil 31 were variable but su gested that
t
there was no significant response. %he depression of yiel in soil 237
was inexplicable.
Soils 250, 253, ROB, and 350 did yield more Po when potassium
gluconate was added to the NaOH. This increase was not solely the
result of a high salt concentration in the NaOH since KCl had little
effect (Table 2).
Incorporation of an acid pre-treatment in the extraction
In the absence of consistent, positive effects of high temperature,
EDTA, or potassium gluconate, the use of an acid pre-treatment was
investigated. When a cold I M HC1 re-treatment was bulked with the
f
NaOH extract for analysis, the resu ts clearly showed that, in terms of
total Po extracted, use of HC1 followed by NaOH was superior to NaOH
alone or NaOH plus potassium gluconate (Table 2).

Comparison of the results with two other extraction procedures

The two extraction procedures chosen for comparison differed in the
type of pre-treatment: hot conc. HC1 (Mehta et al., 1954)and cold
5 er cent (w/v) Na, EDTA (Harrap, 1963).
$he yields of Po in the pre-treatment cold NaOH and hot NaOH
extraction steps of these two methods are shown in Fig. I . With one
exception (350)the total Po extracted by the Harrap method equalled
or exceeded that extracted by the Mehta rocedure. The mild pre-
p.
treatment of Harrap extracted relatively ittle Po and considerable
amounts were removed by both NaOH extractions. By contrast, a con-
centrated hydrochloricacid pre-treatment removed considerableamounts
of Po (see also Hance and Anderson, I 62;Martin, I 64;Dormaar, 1968)
8 8
and Fig. I shows that the second Na H extraction ecame considerably
less important in terms of Po extracted.
In Table 3 the total amounts of P extracted by the procedure of Mehta
et al. (1954)and Harrap (1963)are compared with the P extracted by
the techni ue proposed in this paper. The use of a IM-acid
9
with a sing e, vigorous NaOH extraction gave values as hig
than, those obtained by the other methods. Thus in
effective acid pre-treatment to remove olyvalent cations, good disper-
K
sion enabled rapid extraction of Po by aOH and eliminated the need
for a second NaOH extraction step (cf. Kaila, 1962).
It was concluded that, during shaking, a long period is required for
the NaOH to penetrate into hidden recesses of clay particles and to
extract organic materials, whereas ultrasonic dispersion provides almost
immediate access to adsorbed and inaccessible organic particles. During
 Sails Urrbruc fsl Eastern Australion
Prr-treatment Nil Nil IM-HCI Nil Nil I M-HCI

59, potmiurn 5% potassium

gluconotr in gluconutr in
Exrroctonr 0*5M NaOH ~
0 . 5 NaOH 0 . 5 ~
NaOH ~
0 - 5 ~ N a o H 0 . 5 NaOH 0'5M NaOH
Soil U I PI I49 I49 I79 Soil 250 PI 42 113 (64). I 68
ps 84 88 109 p< 7 47 (19) 95
PO 65 61 70 PO 35 66 (45) 73 0
9
us p: 165 I80 225 CH PI 216 207 226
pi 95 119 150 Pi 77 78 I00
PO 70 61 75 PO I39 129 I 26

U15 Pr 23 I 271 318 237 pt 1481 I559 2800

pi 111 151 185 Pi 920 1043 2200
PO I20 I20 133 PO 56I 516 600
U16 PI 259 268 320 315 pt 1424 1387 1512
pt I33 I49 I 94 pi 334 332 425
PO I 26 119 I 26 PO 1090 105.5 1087
u17 PI 209 242 300 253 pt 609 1030 (700) 1520
PI I20 144 I93 pi 320 660 (372) 1060
PO 89 98 107 PO 289 370 (328) 460
u29 p: 313 335 449 ROB P: 1200 1320 (1 145) 1430
pi 150 I82 266 pi 423 450 (3%) 514 Y

PO 163 153 183 PO 777 870 (759) 916 2:

350 p: 817 I729 (1196) 5702
pi 607 1262 (872) 5133
Po 210 462 (3-1 5 69

9
w
44 J. H. STEWARD AND J. M. OADES
a-

In
2
0
z
n
In
0
r
n
.-0
m
C
e
0

1"NaOH
Pretreatmentm ZdNaOH extract

Extracts: LHS- Mehta, RHS- Harrap.

FIG. I . Organic phosphorus extracted from soils by the methods of Mehta et af.
( I 954) and Harrap ( I 963).

the use of a weaker extracting agent, such as acetylacetone, longer

shaking and ultrasonic vibration times are required to effect complete
extractions of the Po (Halstead et al., 1966; Halstead and Anderson,
I 970). Effective physical and chemical treatments are both necessary if
rapid and complete extraction of Pofrom a soil is to be achieved.

Recommended extraction procedure

In agreement with Harrap (1963), Dormaar and Webster (1963).
Dormaar (1964), and MacLean (19656), the figures in Table 3 showed
considerable variation when Po was extracted from one soil by different
 DETERMINATION OF ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS I N SOILS 45
methods. No single extraction method was consistently superior but,
except for soil 350, the HC1-NaOH-ultrasonic vibration procedure
extracted much more Po from Eastern Australian soils. One distinct
advantage of the HCl-NaOH-ultrasonic vibration procedure is the short
time required for effective extraction of Po. The pre-treatment plus
extraction takes on1 2 h and this enables analyses to be made on the
day of extraction. l
!he method uses such low solution-to-soil ratios that
the Po concentration in the extract is considerably higher than that
resulting from other extraction procedures.

TABLE 3
Comparison of phosphorus (ppm) extracted by the HC1-NaOH-ultrasonic
vibration procedure with methoh of Mehta et sl.

I I
Method of extraci

HC
Mehta
-
- PO PO

tirrbrae fsl
UI 62 70
u5 314 249 242 65 75
UI5 12.5 I33
U16 123 I 26
u17 348 258 303 II0 107
U 29 I79 183
Eastern Australian
roils
2 50
CH
' 183
223
130
131
53
92
104
230
48
111
73
I 26
237 2553 2257 296 I495 507 600
315 1225 567 658 1362 992 1512 I 087
253 2064 1636 428 1038 435 460
ROB 1719 985 734 1385 804 916
350 7038 6257 781 1954
-464 569

Where it is desired to follow a quantitative determination with qualita-

tive observations, two simple variations in the method greatly increase
the concentration of Poin the NaOH extract.
(i) By keeping the re-treatment and NaOH extracts separate, I M
K
HC1 extracts wit comparatively little Po can be discarded before
the qualitative experiments.

s
(ii) Omit ste 4 from the proposed rocedure. Instead, the Po in the
P
entraine solution is accounted or by weighing. This assumption
results in an error of less than 5 per cent.
The method can be adapted to deal with large uantities of soil by
using the flow cell for the ultrasonic probe descri ed by Ford et al. 'b
( 1969).
46 J. H. STEWARD A N D J. M. OADES

Application of the method to several dzflerent soils and to a red-brown

earth under diflerent cropping regimes
Eastern Australian soils
The soils from Eastern Australia did not show any consistent relation-
ship between their C, Po, and P, contents (Table 4). Five of these soils
were high in or anic matter content and they also contained large
'i
amounts of Po, a though in on1 two of them (315,ROB) did this P,
K
represent a high proportion o f t e total soil P.
Urrbrae fsL
C :Poratios. In the Urrbrae fsl under different rotations the C :Poratio
was between I I and 165 (Table 4). Apparently the Poin this soil is an
?
integral part o the organic matter.
TABLE
4
Some properties of the soils studied
Eastern Australian soils

Sample Soilgroup pH C(%) N i % )

'Alkaline' 6.26 1.27 0.088 340 73 174 21'4
c4 Podzolic 4'05 2-03 0.163 500 126 161 25.2
237 Krasnozem 488 404 0297 3940 600 67 15'2
315 Alpine humus 4'49 9.85 0.761 2200 1087 91 49'4
253 Black earth 4'73 3.72 o*241 2240 460 81 4O'j
ROB Krasnozem 4.67 5.84 05x7 2420 916 64 37'9
350 'Alkaline 6.66 6-93 0.292 13500 569 122 4'2
(calcareous)' 1 I I I

Urrbrae fsl

Plot Rotation pH P,/Pt (%I

U' WF 4'20 0.077 5- I4
WPF 4'40 1.22 0'094 575 '3
WWPPPP 450 2.07 0150 730 18
PPPPWW 4'42 2.08 0.150 725 17
W 4.39 1.62 O * I I ~ 670 16
P 4-45 2.88 0'235 930 20

N.B.: I. Each rotation was sampled in the last phase shown:

W = wheat crop, F = fallow, P = pasture.
2. Plots I, 5 , 17 have been maintained since 1925.
Plots 15, 16,29 have been maintained since 1945.
3. Po was determined by HC1-NaOH-ultrasonic vibration procedure.

Accumulation of organic phosphorus in the Urrbrae fsl. Three samples

of the Urrbrae fsl which had grown natural pasture were analysed for C,
P,, and Po (Table 5). Sample U61 was the best available example of the
ori inal 'virgin Urrbrae soil'. The C :Poratio for this soil was 20 in 1927
%
an 222 in 1947.By contrast, a plot which received superp osphate f
 DETERMINATION OF ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS IN SOILS 47

TABLE 5
Characteristics of Urrbraefsl(0--10 cm) r m n g natural pasture
bejiie and after fertilization wit superphosphate B
Total P added
Soil Year of in superphosphate
--
code sampling (kglb)
U61 I927 Nil
u57 1927 58.3 1'00
U618 1947 4506 ~~ ~ ~~~

Powas determined by the HCI-NaOH-ultrasonic vibration procedure.

(U57, U618) showed C :Po ratios close to the range of C :P, ratios for
other fertilized plots on the same soil, as shown in Table 4.
The last column of Table 4 indicates that, as the fertility increases,
as assessed by carbon and nitrogen contents, a greater proportion of the
P, is incorporated into organic molecules.
The proportion of the phosphorus added to the Urrbrae fsl as super-
phosphate which has been incorporated into organic compounds in the
soil was determined using annual reports of the Waite Agricultural
Research Institute and the current results. For the soils growin natural
pasture this was 16-18 per cent. Table 6 shows that a mixed egume- K
TABLE
6
Accumulation of organic phosphorus in Urrbrae fsl
under dagermt rotations
Phosphorus added as
superphosphate since I929
% added P
Plot ppm Po accumulated
number Rotation kg/ha accumulated+ as P,,
UI WF 289 I97 12 6
WPF 402 275 I7 6
5:: WWPPPP 482 330 75 23
U16 PPPPWW 482 330 68 21
U17 W 603 41 1 49 I2
U29 P 603 41 1 125 30

See Table 4 for explanation of rotations.

The plough depth on these plots has been 10 cm and the assumption made in these
calculations is that the Pt and Pois uniformly distributed to this depth.
t Obtained using Pofigures in Table 4 and assuming the unfertilized Urrbrae fsl contained
58 ppm Poas in Table 5.

grass pasture apparent1 accumulates Po more efficiently than natural

Y
asture and considerab e accumulation of Po has occurred in the soils
Eigh in organic matter (plots I , 16, 29). In fact, almost one-third of
f
the phosphorus added to the soi under permanent legume-grass pasture
has been incorporated into organic molecules. This lot has accumu-
lated 1 1 3 ppm Po (approx. 153 kg P,/ha--Io cm deep5 in excess of the
48 J. H. STEWARD AND J. M. OADES
Po in the soil under W F rotation. This considerable accretion of Po
warrants studies of the chemical nature of the accumulated compounds
so that means for the efficient use of this Po and of further added
phosphorus may be devised.

Acknowledgements
J. H. S. is grateful for the award of a Commonwealth Postgraduate
Research Fellowship.

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(Received 24 March Ig7I)

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