Authors
Yinlong Huang, Junyu Qi, Symon Mezbahuddin, Miles Dyck, Derek MacKenzie, Monireh Faramarzi
Published in
The Science of the total environment. Volume 1010. Pages 181051. Dec 08, 2025. Epub Dec 08, 2025.
Abstract
Global studies highlight widespread soil phosphorus (P) depletion, affecting soil health, crop yields, and carbon emissions, while field studies emphasize soil P accumulation and legacy effects driving downstream pollution. However, how various natural and anthropogenic factors shape soil P availability at the watershed scale, especially in cold-climate agricultural breadbaskets, remains unclear. This study applied a process-based model to a large agricultural watershed in western Canada and simulated biogeochemical, hydrological, and crop growth processes, to assess influence of soil moisture, soil temperature, and snowmelt on spatiotemporal soil P dynamics. The model was calibrated and validated against canola crop yield, streamflow, soil temperature, and soil P for 1990-2016. Analyses revealed three distinct patterns of soil P trends across regions: increasing, declining, and stationary. Despite similar fertilizer rates, differences in long-term soil P trends were primarily driven by soil moisture availability. Soil moisture-limited regions (11.3-65.85 mm) exhibited soil P accumulation due to constrained plant uptake (14.87-16.09 kg P/ha), whereas moisture-sufficient counties (47-63 mm) showed net P depletion or equilibrium through enhanced crop uptake. Climate-driven shifts, including earlier (~2 weeks) and more frequent snowmelt, along with increased soil temperature phase-change cycles, enhanced winter P mobilization via mineralization and potential freeze-thaw processes but were insufficient to offset accumulation driven by moisture-limited growing-season uptake. However, P depletion pattern may differ in low-water-use cropping systems, where lower evapotranspiration rates can help conserve soil moisture, resulting in more soluble P available for plant uptake. Overall, the interplay of soil moisture, soil temperature, and snowmelt in canola cropping systems suggests that growing-season, moisture-driven plant P uptake dominates long-term soil P trends, whereas winter processes are secondary. Effective management of soil P and mitigation of downstream impacts in cold-region agricultural systems should therefore prioritize strategies accounting for soil moisture, crop type, as well as soil temperature, and snowmelt dynamics.
PMID:
41364995
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 10 Dec 2025.
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