Post-immobilization phosphorus fluctuations drive selective microbial hydrolysis of sedimentary organic phosphorus and long-term P release.

Authors

Jinhui Wang, Jian Shen, Zhongqing Huang, Chen Wang, Huaji Liu, Feixuan Cai, Jimeng Feng, Xinze Wang

Published in

Environmental research. Pages 125712. Sep 20, 2026. Epub Sep 20, 2026.

Abstract

In-situ immobilization has been widely utilized as an efficient and cost-effective phosphorus (P) treatment technology for lake eutrophication. However, post-immobilization P fluctuations in the overlying water may trigger the compensation of endogenous P from sediments over the long term. Microbially mediated hydrolysis of sedimentary organic phosphorus (SOP) is widely recognized as a pivotal process driving this P replenishment. However, the specific SOP hydrolysis pathways and the underlying microbial interactions remain to be systematically elucidated. Herein, this study explored the post-immobilization P release and SOP fraction change over the long term. Sediment fractionation, enzymatic results, FT-ICR-MS, ³¹P NMR spectroscopy, and Zipi analysis collectively revealed two distinct SOP utilization patterns, explained by molecular composition shift and substrate selectivity to post-immobilization P fluctuations. During major fluctuations, r-strategists emphasized rapid growth of keystone species (Betaproteobacteria and Firmicutes) carrying phoX genes, potentially boosting orthophosphate esters (C-O-P) hydrolysis to increase phosphate flux rapidly (1.49 mg·m^-2·D^-1) while impeding the complete mineralization of SOP (47.11%). By contrast, the minor P fluctuation showed that K-strategists exhibited more diverse Proteobacteria populations carrying the phnJ gene, which possibly preferred hydrolysis for methylphosphonate (C-P) and achieved higher SOP resource utilization (61.22%). Structural equation modeling also indicated that microbial r-K strategies attain DIP compensation by regulating dissolved IP flux in porewaters through SOP substrate selectivity. This work provides novel insights into microbial-mediated SOP hydrolysis in the sediment after immobilization, highlighting long-term post-remediation lake eutrophication risk and developing progressive multi-stage immobilization application strategies.

PMID:
42764053
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 21 Sep 2026.

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