Unveiling the role of dissolved organic matter on phosphorus sorption and availability in a 5-year manure amended paddy soil

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is an active component of organic manure that is widely used in agroecosystems to increase nutrient availability and consequently enhance crop yields. However, the ways in which soil DOM characteristics are influenced by organic manure and how it contributes to crop yield and soil P availability remains unclear. Here, we conducted a 5-year field experiment and demonstrated that partial replacement of chemical P fertilizer with swine manure could maintain high rice yield and soil available P levels and increase P fertilizer use efficiency (PUE) in comparison to chemical fertilization, even when the total P input was reduced. This suggests that organic manure application can significantly mobilize soil P and increase P availability. Structural equation modeling analysis indicated that the soil pH and humification degree of DOM, rather than DOM content, directly decreased maximum P adsorption capacity. The combined results of the optical spectroscopy and ultrahigh-resolution mass spectroscopy obtained from the laboratory validation experiment based on the DOM-removed soil demonstrated that manure-derived DOM competing with P for adsorption was one of the main reasons for the increase in soil P availability and that the effective DOM components were N-containing lignins, tannins, and condensed polycyclic aromatics with higher O/C and lower H/C ratios. Overall, our results provide solid evidence that soil DOM characteristics are influenced by manure application and facilitate soil P availability, which could help guide the sustainable P management and manure application in agroecosystems.