Phosphorus forms in soil and its importance in plant nutrition.
Keywords: microbial biomass, spatial dependence, sequential extraction, bibliometric indicators, phosphate reserves.
Phosphorus (P) is among the most important elements for plant vigor and development. However, it has a strong tendency to react with soil components, adsorbing to colloids (adsorption) or forming low solubility compounds (precipitation) with other ions present in the exchange complex, making them unavailable for absorption by plants. Thus, the adoption of large-scale fertilizers is necessary to ensure wide availability of P to plants, directly impacting phosphate reserves globally, given that the production of phosphate fertilizers occurs mainly by the phosphate rock mining. Much of the application of P is performed without considering spatial variability within a management area, which causes an increase in the cost of the production process. As a result, concerns about the longevity and location of mineral phosphate reserves raise the debate about long-term P sustainability as it is a finite and irreplaceable resource. Faced with this scenario, science, politics, agribusiness and other stakeholders are increasingly concerned about the sustainable use of P resources. Researchers around the world have been looking for strategies to reduce dependence on P inorganic fertilizers and These strategies have increased the relevance of soil organic P to plant nutrition. However, the chemical and dynamic nature of organic P remains poorly understood, which is due in part to analytical limitations as there are no direct methods for quantifying or specifying organic phosphorus from the soil. Given the above, this paper deals with a review about the use of P as agricultural fertilizer and its effects on global phosphate reserves; P spatial variability in agricultural soils as a function of soil attributes; contribution of organic P to plant nutrition and methods of determination of soil organic P. In addition, a bibliometric study was conducted based on the structure and evolution of scientific production on organic soil P at global level.