Phosphorus Sorption by Some Hydromorphic Soils of Southern Nigeria

A laboratory experiment was conducted on fifty-eight (58) surface soils from five different soil parent materials in Southern Nigeria. Samples were equilibrated with different P concentrations ranging from 0 - 150 mg/L prior to evaluation sorption potentials. The Phosphorus Sorption Index (PSI) of the soils ranged from 4.80 to 64.90. The PSI values correlated significantly with some of the soil parameters analyzed at P ≤ 0.05 and P ≤ 0.01 level of significance in the soil samples on crystalline metamorphic and igneous rock, shale mixed with sandstone and clay and coastal plain sands but not in the freshwater swamp and coastal alluvium soils. Also, the results indicated that at any specific P concentration, the coastal alluvium soils had the highest amount of P sorbed than the other soils.