ISSN 1064-2293, Eurasian Soil Science, 2021, Vol. 54, No. 1, pp. 72–79. © Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2021.

SOIL CHEMISTRY

Distribution of Organic Phosphorus in Soil Aggregates

from Apple-Pear Orchard of China
Xu Denga, Tong-Liang Xua, Wei-Wei Donga, Qing Zhanga, and Yunjiang Lianga, *
a
Agriculture College, Yanbian University, Yanji City, Jilin Province, 133002 China
*e-mail: lyjluo@ybu.edu.cn
Received April 29, 2020; revised May 18, 2020; accepted July 12, 2020

Abstract—The distribution, mineralization, and transformation of soil organic phosphorus (P) exhibits
strong regional characteristics because of variations in climate and pear varieties in Yanbian apple–pear
orchard. Soil samples were collected in 11, 25, 40, and 63-year-old apple-pear orchards, at the depths of 0–
20 cm, 20–40 cm, and 40–60 cm. Soil aggregates were sieved using the dry sieving method, and the concen-
trations of organic P were determined using the improved Bowman-Cole method. Differences in organic P
in soil aggregates were analyzed in respect to planting year, soil layer, and season. According to the results,
with an increase in planting years, labile, moderately labile, moderately stable, highly stable, and total
extracted organic P in soil aggregates increased and then decreased. The concentrations were the lowest in
the 11-year-old orchard and the highest in the 25-year-old orchard. With an increase in soil layer depth, all
the forms of organic P concentrations in soil aggregates decreased linearly, and there were significant differ-
ences among different levels. In addition, with shifting seasons from spring, summer, to autumn, the labile
organic P concentrations in soil aggregates decreased gradually, and the moderately labile, highly stable, and
total extracted organic P concentrations first increased and then decreased, while the moderately stable ones
first decreased and then increased. All the forms of organic P concentrations in soil aggregates were the high-
est in the <0.25 mm aggregate size fraction, followed by the 0.25–0.5 mm fraction. The concentrations of
total extracted organic P decreased with an increase in aggregate size fraction. According to the results,
organic P is accumulated relatively easily in smaller aggregates, and moderately labile organic P was the major
form of organic P in the apple-pear orchard soil, followed by highly stable organic P.

Keywords: aggregates, organic phosphorus, apple-pear orchard, planting year, season, soil layer
DOI: 10.1134/S1064229321010038

INTRODUCTION Soil aggregates represent soil mass, soil blocks, or

Phosphorus (P) is an element that is essential for
plant growth and development [11]. The P required by
plants is obtained mainly from the soil P pool [24].
Soil organic P is an important component of soil P,
generally accounting for 20–80% of the total soil P,
and can reach up to 95% [7, 21–23, 26, 30]. With the
development of organic agriculture and ecological
agriculture, more attention is being paid to soil organic
P in soil science and plant nutrition. Compared with
inorganic P levels in soil, the levels of organic P could
shift easily [26]. Some organic P compounds entering
the rhizosphere of crops can be absorbed directly by
plants [21, 27]. Most organic P can be mineralized
gradually into inorganic P, particularly microorgan-
ism P, which is mineralized easily, and, therefore, is a
vital source of soil available P [15, 28]. Consequently,
the forms and shifts in soil organic P influence soil P
supply capacity in a soil and plant P nutrition [3, 4].
Studying soil organic P dynamics enhances our under-
standing of the P cycle in soil-plant systems [3, 9, 15].
soil aggregates with different sizes, shapes, and prop-
erties, which are the basic units of soil structure. Dif-
ferent aggregate sizes interact with soil P or fertilizer P
differently, in turn, influencing the establishment of
soil available P pools and soil P availability to plants,
and are directly linked to the potential soil nutrient
supply [1, 8, 18]. The results [6] of a 14-year field
experiment carried out on yellow-brown soil revealed
that the order of the concentrations of organic P in dif-
ferent soil aggregate fractions was 0–0.002 mm >
0.002–0.01 mm > 0.05–0.1 mm > 0.01–0.05 mm.
According to Cha et al. [5], labile organic P was dis-
tributed mainly in the <0.01 mm and 0.05–0.25 mm
aggregate size fractions, and moderately labile
organic P, moderately stable organic P, and highly sta-
ble organic P were distributed mainly in the <0.01 mm
aggregate fraction. Wen et al., [25] observed that in
large aggregates (>2 mm), the concentrations of mod-
erately stable and highly stable organic P were higher,
and in >2 mm or <0.5 mm aggregates, the concentra-
tions of labile and moderately labile organic P were

72
 DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS IN SOIL AGGREGATES
higher. However, the findings of Wu et al. [29] are
slightly inconsistent with the results of other studies.
The labile organic P and moderately labile organic P
are distributed mainly in small-sized aggregates, and
moderately stable organic P is mainly distributed the
2–5 mm and the <0.5 mm aggregate size fractions.
The concentrations of highly stable organic P with
high stability are the highest in the >2 mm fractions,
there are more stable organic P concentrations in large
aggregates and more effective organic P in small
aggregates. However, the distribution characteristics
of various forms of organic P in brown desert soil
aggregates in soil under 10–14 years of cultivation in
the south of Xinjiang revealed that they decrease with
an increase in aggregate size fractions, and the diame-
ters of most aggregates are mostly less than 0.1 mm [14].
Based on the results, different aggregate fractions have
different capacities to retain organic P, and the distri-
butions of organic P in different aggregate fractions are
not similar due to differences in soil type, climate, and
other conditions, which require further investigations.
Although the total area of the apple-pear orchard
in the present study is relatively small, it offers a
unique land use model for studying agricultural eco-
systems in the cold regions of North China. The distri-
bution, mineralization, and transformation processes
of soil organic P in the Yanbian apple-pear orchard are
different from those in other orchards considering the
specific climatic conditions and pear varieties. There-
fore, a study on the distribution characteristics of soil
organic P in different soil fractions would provide
insights on P cycles in northern orchards in China and
provide a valuable reference for soil management in
apple-pear orchards.
OBJECTS AND METHODS
Sampling points were located in apple-pear orchard,
Hualong fruit farm, Longjing City, Yanbian Prefec-
ture (N: 41°59–44°30, E: 127°27–131°18), in the
Xitian Plain, at an altitude of approximately 280 m.
The soil type is Haplic Luvisols. Clean tillage is
adopted between rows of orchards, with no irrigation,
in addition to good management practices. Urea,
diammonium phosphate, and potassium sulfate are
the major fertilizers applied in the orchard, and an
N : P2O5 : K2O ratio of 1 : 0.5 : 0.04 was applied.
Soil samples were collected in the orchard from
April 29 to May 2 in spring, July 28 to July 29 in sum-
mer, and October 15 to October 17 in autumn in 2015.
11, 25, 40, and 63 year-old apple-pear trees with good
growth were selected randomly, and sampling points
were set 1 m from the trunk while avoiding fertilization
points. There were five sampling points in the fruit-
tree area for each planting year group based on the
five-spot-sampling method, yielding 25 sampling
points. In spring, summer, and autumn, three undis-
turbed soil samples were collected from the 0–20 cm,
EURASIAN SOIL SCIENCE Vol. 54 No. 1 2021
73
20–40 cm, and 40–60 cm soil layers in each sampling
point, yielding 225 soil samples.
According to the method of Shavinov [10], the col-
lected soil mass was broken into smaller pieces with
10–12 mm diameter along its natural structural frac-
ture, and then air dried, and then soil aggregates of dif-
ferent fractions were determined by dry sieving. Soil
(100–200 g) was obtained and put in a sieve with a
diameter of 20 cm and sieved sequentially using 10 mm,
7 mm, 5 mm, 3 mm, 2 mm, 1 mm, 0.5 mm and
0.25 mm screens (with covers at the tops and at the
bottoms). We divided the tested soil into aggregate
fractions based on the following aggregate diameters:
>10, 7–10, 5–7, 3–5, 2–3, 1–2, 0.5–1, 0.25–0.5 and
<0.25 mm. In addition, we determined the mass of air-
dried soil in each aggregate fraction, and calculated
the percentage concentrations of soil aggregates in
each soil fraction. The improved Bowman-Cole
method was used for the determination of organic
P components in aggregates [2, 31]. The improved
Bowman-Cole method consisted of the following
steps: (1) to the soil pretreated with chloroform,
0.5 mol L–1 of NaHCO3 were added with ultrasonic
treatment for 10 minutes followed by oscillation for
30 minutes to extract the labile organic P into the
supernatant; (2) to the soil left after the initial
extraction, 0.1 mol L–1 of NaOH was added with
ultrasound for 10 minutes followed by oscillating for
4 hours to leach the stable and the moderately labile
organic P fractions into the alkali solution; (3) to the
above alkali supernatant, acid was added to adjust the
pH to 3.00 to precipitate the highly stable organic P
and allow the moderately stable fraction remain in the
solution and finally; (4) to the soil, 1 mol L–1 of H2SO4
was added with a constant oscillation for 3 hours to
extract the moderately labile organic P. Compared
with the original method, the current test method
appeared to have optimized the conditions with
improved efficiency.
IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA)
and MS Excel 2016 (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA,
USA) were used for calculations and statistical analy-
ses. Multiple comparisons were performed using Dun-
can’s new multiple range test (α = 0.05). The data in
the table are presented as estimated marginal means.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The concentrations of labile organic P in the 0–20,
20–40, and 40–60 cm layers of plants with different
planting years in spring, summer, and autumn have
been plotted as column charts based on the different
aggregate fractions (Figs. S1–S3). Analysis of variance
(ANOVA) results of the labile organic P data revealed
that the effects of four factors, including planting year,
soil layer, season, and aggregate fraction, in addition
to the effects of their interactions on P were best signif-
74 XU DENG et al.

Table 1. Distribution of organic phosphorus (mg kg–1) in soil aggregates under orchards with different planting years
Planting Labile Moderately labile Moderately stable Highly stable Total extracted
year organic P organic P organic P organic P organic P
11 8.4c 40.5d 9.1b 10.4c 68.5d
25 10.3a 106.8a 10.6a 12.4a 145.6a
40 10.2a 89.8b 10.3a 11.1bc 121.6b
63 9.4b 57.2c 9.6b 11.2b 87.5c
All values were expressed as mean (n = 162). Values followed by different lowercase letters within the same column are significantly dif-
ferent for planting year (P < 0.05).

Table 2. Distribution of organic phosphorus (mg kg–1) in soil aggregates under different soil layers
Soil Labile Moderately labile Moderately stable Highly stable Total extracted
layer, cm organic P organic P organic P organic P organic P
0–20 13.4a 121.9a 13.3a 17.8a 164.9a
20–40 9.1b 65.9b 8.9b 9.7b 92.6b
40–60 6.2c 32.9c 7.5c 6.3c 60.0c
Note. All values were expressed as mean (n = 216). Values followed by different lowercase letters within the same column are signifi-
cantly different for soil layer (P < 0.05).

Table 3. Distribution of organic phosphorus (mg kg–1) in soil aggregates under different seasons
Labile Moderately labile Moderately stable Highly stable organic Total extracted
Season
organic P organic P organic P P organic P
Spring 9.8a 64.7c 10.3a 10.8b 102.6b
Summer 9.6a 84.2a 9.2b 12.3a 113.2a
Autumn 9.3b 71.8b 10.3a 10.7b 101.6b
All values were expressed as mean (n = 216). Values followed by different lowercase letters within the same column are significantly dif-
ferent for season (P < 0.05).

icant (P < 0.01). See Tables 1–4 for further multiple
comparison results for each factor.
Labile organic P increased and the decreased in soil
aggregates with an increase in planting year (Table 1). In
addition, the concentrations of labile organic P were the
highest in the 25 and 40-year-old plants, at 10.3 mg kg–1
and 10.2 mg kg–1, respectively, and there were no sig-
nificant differences between them (P = 0.26), while
the concentrations in the two planting years were sig-
nificantly higher (P < 0.05) than in the 63 and 11-year-
old orchards. The concentrations of labile organic P were
the lowest in the 11-year-old orchards (8.4 mg kg–1),
which were significantly lower (P < 0.05) than in the
other orchards. The concentrations of labile organic P
in soil aggregates decreased linearly with an increase in
soil depth (Table 2), and were 32.1% and 54.1% lower
than in the concentrations in the surface layer, with sig-
nificant differences among different layers (P < 0.05).
In addition, the concentrations of labile organic P in
soil aggregates in spring were the highest, and
decreased slightly in summer (Table 3). There were no
significant differences in the concentrations between
spring and summer (P = 0.35). In autumn, the con-
centrations of active organic P decreased to 9.3 mg kg–1,
and there were significant differences between the con-
centrations in spring and in summer (P < 0.05). The
concentrations of labile organic P in the <0.25 mm frac-
tion were the highest, reaching 11.6 mg kg–1 (Table 4),
and the difference with other fractions was significant
(P < 0.05). The second highest concentrations were
observed in the 0.25–0.5 mm fraction. The above
results show that the labile organic P is enriched rela-
tively easily in small aggregates.
The concentrations of moderately labile organic P
in the 0–20 cm, 20–40 cm and 40–60 cm layers in dif-
ferent planting years in spring, summer, and autumn
have been plotted as a column chart based on the differ-
ent aggregate fractions (Figs. S4–S6). The ANOVA
results of moderately labile organic P data revealed that
the effects of four factors (planting year, soil layer, sea-
son, and aggregate fraction) and their interactions were
best significant (P < 0.01). Further multiple compari-
son results for each factor are listed in Tables 1–4.
The concentrations of moderately labile organic P
in soil aggregates increased and then decreased with an

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 DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS IN SOIL AGGREGATES
Table 4. Distribution of organic phosphorus (mg kg–1) in soil aggregates of different fraction
Aggregate Moderately labile
Labile organic P
fraction, mm organic P
>10 9.9b 62.8de
10–7 9.6bc 69.3cd
7–5 8.7de 57.8e
5–3 9.1de 70.5cd
3–2 9.2cd 64.4de
2–1 9.1de 68.3d
1–0.5 8.7e 76.8c
0.5–0.25 10.1b 90.0b
<0.25 11.6a 102.4a
All values were expressed as mean (n = 72). Values followed by different lowercase letters within the same column are significantly dif-
ferent for aggregate size fraction (P < 0.05).
increased in planting years (Table 1). In 11 years, the
concentrations of moderately labile organic P in
orchard aggregates were the lowest, at 40.5 mg kg–1,
while they were the highest at 25 years, at 106.8 mg kg–1.
In addition, the differences in concentrations of mod-
erately labile P were significant among the four
orchards (P < 0.05). The concentrations of moderately
labile organic P in soil aggregates decreased linearly
with an increase in soil depth (Table 2), which was
45.9% and 73.0% lower than the concentrations in the
surface layer, with significant differences among dif-
ferent soil layers (P < 0.05). The concentrations of
moderately labile organic P in soil aggregates were the
lowest in spring (Table 3), at 64.7 mg kg–1, and the high-
est in summer, at 84.2 mg kg–1. There were significant
differences in concentrations of moderately labile P
among the three seasons (P < 0.05). The concentrations
of moderately labile organic P in the <0.25 mm fraction
were the highest (Table 4), reaching 102.4 mg kg–1, fol-
lowed by the 0.25–0.5 mm fraction, at 89.9 mg kg–1. In
addition, there were significant differences between the
two fractions, and among all other fractions (P < 0.05).
According to the results, moderately labile organic P
was enriched relatively easily in small aggregates.
The concentrations of moderately stable organic P
in the 0–20 cm, 20–40 cm, and 40–60 cm layers for
different planting years in spring, summer, and
autumn have been plotted as column charts based on
the aggregates of different fractions (Figs. S7–S9).
The results of the ANOVA carried out on the moder-
ately stable organic P data showed that the four factors
(planting year, soil layer, season, and aggregate frac-
tion) and their interaction influenced moderately sta-
ble organic P concentrations significantly (P < 0.01).
Additional multiple comparison results for each factor
can be viewed in Tables 1–4.
The concentrations of moderately stable organic P
increased in soil aggregates first and then decreased
with an increase in planting year (Table 1). The con-
EURASIAN SOIL SCIENCE Vol. 54 No. 1 2021
75
Moderately stable Highly stable Total extracted
organic P organic P organic P
10.0b 8.9f 92.5de
10.2b 10.3cde 97.0de
8.5c 9.5ef 88.0e
8.7c 11.3c 101.6cd
10.5b 10.0def 97.1de
8.9c 10.9cd 101.9cd
9.5bc 11.1cd 109.5c
10.2b 13.8b 120.6b
12.7a 15.6a 144.3a
centrations of moderately stable organic P in orchard
soil aggregates were the lowest in the 11-year-old
plants, at 9.1 mg kg–1, and the highest in the 25-year-
old plants, at 10.6 mg kg–1. There were no significant
differences in the concentrations of moderately stable
organic P in soil aggregates between the 25-year-old
and the 40-year-old orchards, and between the
11-year-old and the 63-year-old plants, and there was
a significant difference in the concentrations of mod-
erately stable organic P between orchards of the two
groups (P < 0.05). The concentrations of moderately
stable organic P in soil aggregates decreased linearly
with increase in soil depth (Table 2), which was 32.7%
and 43.2% lower than that in the surface layer, with
significant differences among the layers (P < 0.05).
The concentrations of moderately stable organic P in
soil aggregates were the highest in spring (Table 3), at
10.3 mg kg–1.From spring to summer, the concentra-
tions of moderately stable organic P in soil aggregates
decreased significantly (P < 0.05), and then increased sig-
nificantly (P < 0.05) in autumn, reaching 10.2 mg kg–1.
However, there were no significant difference in the
concentrations of moderately stable organic P between
spring and autumn (P > 0.05). In addition, the con-
centrations of moderately stable organic P were the
highest in the <0.25 mm aggregate fraction (Table 4),
at 12.7 mg kg–1, and the difference with other aggre-
gate fraction is significant (P < 0.05). According to the
results, moderately stable organic P is enriched rela-
tively easily in the micro aggregates.
The concentrations of highly stable organic P in the
0–20 cm, 20–40 cm, and 40–60 cm layers of different
planting years in the spring, summer, and autumn have
been plotted as column charts based on the aggregates
of different aggregate fractions (Figs. S10–S12). The
results of ANOVA conducted on the highly stable
organic P data showed that the four factors, including
planting years, soil layer, season, and aggregate frac-
tion, in addition to their interaction, influenced highly
76 XU DENG et al.
stable organic P concentrations significantly (P < 0.01).
Further multiple comparisons results for each factor
are listed in Tables 1–4.
Highly stable organic P concentrations in soil
aggregates increased first and then decreased with an
increase in plant years (Table 1). The concentrations
of highly stable organic P in soil aggregates were the
lowest in the plants grown for 11 years, at 10.4 mg kg–1,
and the highest in the plants growth for 25 years, at
12.4 mg kg–1, which is significant difference with other
orchards (P < 0.05). While there were no significant
differences in highly stable organic P concentrations
between 11 years and 40 years, and between 40 years
and 63 years, there were significant differences in highly
stable organic P concentrations between 63 years and
11 years (P < 0.05). In addition, the concentrations of
highly stable organic P in soil aggregates decreased lin-
early with an increase in soil depth (Table 2), which is
45.28% and 64.83% lower than that in the surface
layer, and there were significant differences among the
layers (P < 0.05). From spring to summer, the concentra-
tions of highly stable organic P in soil aggregates
increased significantly (P < 0.05), reaching 12.3 mg kg–1,
and then decreased significantly (P < 0.05) in autumn
(Table 3). However, there were no significant differ-
ence in the concentrations of highly stable organic P
between spring and autumn (P > 0.05). The concentra-
tions of highly stable organic P in the <0.25 mm fraction
were the highest (Table 4), reaching 15.3 mg kg–1, fol-
lowed by the 0.25–0.5 mm fraction, which was
13.8 mg kg–1. There was a significant difference in the
concentrations between the two fractions, and among
all the fractions (P < 0.05). The results indicate that
highly stable organic P is enriched relatively easily in
small aggregates.
The concentrations of total extracted organic P in
the 0–20 cm, 20–40 cm, and 40–60 cm layers of dif-
ferent planting years in spring, summer, and autumn
have been plotted as column charts according to the
aggregates of different aggregate size fraction
(Figs. S13–S15). The results of ANOVA carried out
on the total extracted organic P data showed that the
influence of the four factors examined, including
planting year, soil layer, season, and aggregate frac-
tion, in addition to their interactions on labile organic
P were significant (P < 0.01). More multiple compar-
ison results for each factor are presented in Tables 1–4.
The concentrations of total extracted organic P in
soil aggregates increased first and then decreased with
an increase in planting years (Table 1). The total
extracted organic P concentrations in the orchard soil
aggregates were the lowest under the 11-year-old plants,
at 68.5 mg kg–1. Conversely, the total extracted organic
P concentrations in the orchard aggregates were the
highest under the 25-year-old plants, at 145.6 mg kg–1.
In addition, there were significant differences among
the four orchards (P < 0.05). The concentrations of
total extracted organic P in soil aggregates decreased
linearly with an increase in soil depth (Table 2), which is
43.89% and 63.65% lower than that in the surface layer,
with significant differences among layers (P < 0.05).
The total extracted organic P concentrations in soil
aggregates increased significantly from spring to sum-
mer (P < 0.05), reaching 113.2 mg kg–1, and decreased
significantly in autumn (P < 0.05) (Table 3). There
were no significant differences in concentrations
between spring and autumn (P > 0.05). In addition,
the concentrations of total extracted organic P were
the highest in the <0.25-mm aggregate fraction, reach-
ing 144.2 mg kg–1, followed by in the 0.25–0.5 mm
aggregate fraction, at 120.6 mg kg-1 (Table 4). There
were significant differences among the three aggregate
fractions (P < 0.05). The concentrations of total
extracted organic P decreased with an increase in
aggregate size fraction. The results suggest that total
extracted organic P is are enriched relatively easily in
small aggregates.
The labile, moderately labile, moderately stable,
highly stable, and total extracted organic P in soil
aggregates increased first and then decreased with an
increase in planting year. The concentrations were the
lowest in the 11-year-old plants, the highest in the
25-year-old plants, and began to decrease in the
40-year-old plants. The concentrations in the 63-year-
old plants were lower than in the 40-year-old plants,
but higher than in the 11-year-old plants. This is
mainly because the relatively young fruit trees
(11 years) have not reached the fruiting period, so that
there are only inputs without output. In addition, the
input levels are low, the amount of litter entering the
soil annually is low, and the rate of accumulation of
organic P in the soil is low. Compared with the
11-year-old orchard, the 25-year-old orchard had lush
foliage, more roots, and high fruit yield. Although the
25-year-old orchard consumed higher amounts of
nutrients, enhanced by increased levels of fertilization,
so that higher amounts of organic matter were returned
to the soil annually, leading to the highest organic P
accumulation levels in the soil.
At 40 years, the fruit trees entered their most pro-
ductive stages, with the highest yield, the highest levels
of fertilization and the most consumption, which pro-
moted the mineralization and absorption of the labile
organic P. As a result of the balance between nutrient
management, input, and return, and nutrient con-
sumption, the organic P in the 40-year-old orchards
decreased; however, there was no significant difference
in activity and medium stable organic P between the
40-year-old and the 25-year-old orchard (P > 0.05). In
the 63-year-old orchard, the trees were aged, and yield
decreased, the orchard management began to enter
roughly, and the organic matter returned to the soil
decreased annually, so that the organic P levels in the
orchard aggregates in the 63-year-old trees were lower
than those in the 25 and 40-year-old trees. With an
increase in soil depth, the labile, moderately labile,
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 DISTRIBUTION OF ORGANIC PHOSPHORUS IN SOIL AGGREGATES
moderately stable, highly stable, and total extracted
organic P concentrations in soil aggregates decreased
linearly. In addition, there were significant differences
among the soil layers, which was consistent with the
findings of Kitayama [16]. This is mainly because
roots of fruit trees are concentrated mainly in the 20–
60 cm depth, which is the main layer at which fruit
trees absorb soil nutrients, so that the rates of miner-
alization and absorption organic P in the layer are
high, while the roots of fruit trees at the surface layer
(0–20 cm) are relatively few and plant litter are depos-
ited directly on the layer.
With the progression of seasons from spring, sum-
mer, and autumn, the concentrations of labile organic P
in soil aggregates tended to decrease gradually, which
was mainly due to low biological consumption, low
microbial activity, and low organic P mineralization
rates in spring. In addition, an increase in biological
activity in summer intensified labile organic P absorp-
tion and mineralization rates. Similarly, other forms of
organic P are also transformed into labile organic P,
forming the labile organic P. In autumn, biomass con-
sumption decreased; however, the rate of formation of
labile organic P was relatively low, and it began being
transformed into a stable state. The concentrations of
moderately labile and highly stable organic P in soil
aggregates increased from spring to summer, and then
decreased significantly in autumn. On the contrary,
the concentrations of moderately stable organic P first
decreased and then increased, which was mainly asso-
ciated with a dynamic balance among biological con-
sumption, organic matter input, and organic P com-
ponent transformation.
Although there are higher rates of biological con-
sumption in summer, there are also higher rates of
organic matter input and input of organic P compo-
nents. Overall, the concentrations of moderately sta-
ble organic P decreased, the concentrations of moder-
ately labile and highly stable organic P increased, with
the increase in moderately labile organic P being larg-
est, which was the main reason for the increase in total
extracted organic P concentrations in summer. In
autumn, the input of organic matter decreased, bio-
logical activity declined, and the rate of the formation
of organic P decreased, and some of the moderately
labile organic P changed from aging to moderately sta-
ble organic P, resulting in the increase in the moder-
ately stable organic P in autumn and the decrease in
moderately labile organic P.
Based on aggregate fraction distribution, the labile,
moderately labile, moderately stable, highly stable,
total extracted organic P concentrations in soil aggre-
gates were the highest in the <0.25 mm aggregate frac-
tion, followed by the 0.25–0.5 mm aggregate fraction.
The concentrations of total extracted organic P
decreased with an increase in aggregate fraction,
which was consistent with the findings of Sun [13].
Small aggregate aggregates, especially micro aggre-
EURASIAN SOIL SCIENCE Vol. 54 No. 1 2021
77
gates, have large specific surface area and surface
energy, often have colloidal properties, have strong
adsorption and retention properties [12, 18], and can
easily organic-inorganic complexes [17], so that
organic P enriched in small aggregate aggregates rela-
tively easily.
Compared with other forms of organic P, the mod-
erately labile organic P had the highest concentration,
accounting for 54.9–74.6% of the total extracted
organic P, regardless of planting year, soil layer, sea-
son, or aggregate fraction. The second most abundant
P component was the highly stable organic P, and the
most labile organic P was less than the moderately sta-
ble organic P. The results of Yang [20] from a study on
the Loess soil and Han [33] from a study on fluvo-
aquic soil are slightly inconsistent with the findings
reported in the present study. The order of abundance
in the present study is as follows: moderately labile
organic P > moderately stable organic P > labile
organic P and highly stable organic P. Yan [32] con-
ducted a study on black soil and reported that the pro-
portions of moderately labile organic P were the high-
est, followed by the proportions of moderately stable
organic P and highly stable organic P, while the pro-
portions of labile organic P were the lowest. In the
present study was conducted on Haplic Luvisols,
which could be the major reason for the inconsisten-
cies between the findings of the present study and pre-
vious studies.
CONCLUSIONS
The labile, moderately labile, moderately stable,
highly stable, and total extracted organic P concentra-
tions in soil aggregates increased first and then
decreased with an increase in planting year. The con-
centrations of the P components were the lowest in the
11-year-old plantations and the highest in the 25-year-
old plantations. In addition, the concentrations of
labile, moderately labile, moderately stable, highly
stable, and total extracted organic P in soil aggregates
decreased linearly with an increase in soil depth, and
there were significant differences among different lev-
els. With change in seasons from spring, summer, to
autumn, the labile organic P concentrations in soil
aggregates decreased gradually, and the moderately
labile, highly stable, and total extracted organic P con-
centrations first increased and then decreased, while
the moderately stable organic P concentrations first
decreased and then increased. The labile, moderately
labile, moderately stable, highly stable, total extracted
organic P concentrations in soil aggregates were the
highest in the <0.25 mm aggregate fraction, followed
by the 0.25–0.5 mm aggregate fraction. The total
extracted organic P concentrations decreased with an
increase in aggregate size fraction. Organic P accumu-
lates relatively easily in small aggregates. Moderately
labile organic P is the major organic P form in the apple-
pear orchards, followed by highly stable organic P.
78 XU DENG et al.
FUNDING
This study was supported by the National Natural Sci-
ence Foundation of China (no. 31460117).
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
Supplementary materials are available for this article at
DOI:10.1134/S1064229321010038 and are accessible for
authorized users.
Supporting information includes concentrations of
organic P in the 0–20, 20–40, and 40–60 cm layers of
plants with different planting years in spring, summer, and
autumn have been plotted as column charts based on the
different aggregate fractions (Figs. S1–S15) in this work,
and the standard error size is indicated by the error line at
the top of column chart.
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