ORIGINAL RESEARCH
The High Phosphorus Incorporation Promotes
the Soil Enzymatic Activity, Nutritional Status,
and Biomass of the Crop
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1
School of Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, P.R. China
2
College of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, P.R. China
3
College of Water Conservancy, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China
4
Department of Biology, College of Science, University of Hail, Hail, Saudi Arabia
5
Department of Agronomy, The University of Agriculture, Peshawar-Pakistan
6
Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan
Submission date: 2022-10-30
Final revision date: 2022-12-14
Acceptance date: 2022-12-28
Online publication date: 2023-02-27
Publication date: 2023-04-14
Corresponding author
Qaiser Javed
School of Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, P.R. China, China
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2023;32(3):2125-2139
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ABSTRACT
Phosphorus (P) application in the soil improves soil fertility and thus contributes to reproductive
organ development, resulting in a higher cotton yield. However, the effect of increasing phosphorus
rate on soil nutrient status, phosphorus-related enzyme activities, and its effects on crop productivity
needs excellent attention. A consecutive two-year (2017-2018) field experiment containing three
phosphorus levels [0 (P1), 100 (P2), and 200 (P3) kg P2O5 ha-1] was accomplished by maintaining three
replications. During both cropping years, soil samples were gathered from the topsoil (0-20 cm) and
subsurface (20-40 cm) during the harvesting stage of the cotton crop. Soil collected at topsoil showed
a significant increase in available and total phosphorus contents and urease and acid, alkaline, and
neutral phosphatase enzyme activities compared with the sub-soil. The soil nutrients, viz. ammonium,
nitrate, total nitrogen, available potassium, and total potassium, were significantly higher in P3 at
the topsoil compared to other treatments. Soil enzymes viz. urease and acid, alkaline, and neutral
phosphatase activities in the P3 were improved compared to the P1 and P2 applications. On average,
the activities of these enzymes were maximum in 2017 at both soil depths. Moreover, the maximum
biomass accumulation was observed in vegetative (root, stem, and leaves) and reproductive (bur, lint,
and seed) organs with P3 incorporation in the soil. Similarly, an increase in the phosphorus application
rate significantly enhanced the plant biomass and seed cotton yield during the 2017 and 2018 cropping
seasons. Conclusively, the findings of this study showed that the P3 (200 kg P2O5 ha−1) rate enhanced
cotton productivity by improving the soil physicochemical properties, which alternately enhanced the phosphorus availability to the crop. Thus, changing these properties of the soil resulted in the
enhancement of soil enzyme activities by increasing the cotton yield under field conditions.