phosphorus-cycling
Phosphorus cycling refers to the biological and chemical processes by which phosphorus moves through soils, plants, and ecosystems, including uptake by roots, incorporation into plant tissues, and return to the soil through decomposition. Phosphorus is an essential macronutrient for plants, playing a critical role in energy transfer (ATP), nucleic acid synthesis, and membrane structure. Understanding phosphorus cycling is vital for plant science because phosphorus availability in soil is often a key limiting factor for plant growth, making research into root-soil interactions, mycorrhizal associations, and plant phosphorus-use efficiency central to improving crop productivity and sustainable agriculture.
open_in_new WikipediaPubMed · 2026-05-03
Different forms of phosphorus fertilizer cause wheat roots to recruit distinct communities of soil bacteria, each using different chemical strategies to unlock phosphorus from the soil — even though all three fertilizer types ultimately deliver similar crop yields over four years.
All three phosphorus fertilizer forms achieved comparable phosphorus use efficiency over a 4-year field experiment, but through entirely different biological and microbial pathways.
Insoluble phosphorus fertilizer caused wheat roots to release more citrate, recruiting bacteria like Bacillus that specialize in dissolving locked-up phosphorus from soil minerals.
Polymeric phosphorus fertilizer boosted soil enzyme (phosphatase) activity and increased root succinate release, recruiting bacteria specialized in breaking down complex organic compounds to free phosphorus.
