Impacts of anthropic pressures on soil phosphorus availability, concentration, and phosphorus forms in sediments in a Southern Brazilian watershed

The transfer of soil sediments and phosphorus from terrestrial to aquatic systems is a common process in agricultural lands. The aims of this paper are to quantify the soil phosphorus availability and to characterize phosphorus forms in soil sediments as contaminant agents of waters as a function of anthropic pressures. On three subwatersheds with different anthropic pressure, water and sediment samples were collected automatically in upstream and downstream discharge points in six rainfall events during the tobacco growing season. Phosphorus desorption capacity from soil sediments was estimated by successive extractions with anion exchange resins. First-order kinetic models were adjusted to desorption curves for estimating potentially bioavailable particulate phosphorus, desorption rate constant, and bioavailable particulate phosphorus. The amount of bioavailable particulate phosphorus was directly correlated with the iron oxide content. The value of desorption rate constant was directly related with the total organic carbon and inversely with the iron oxide contents. Phosphate ions were released to solution, on average, twice as rapidly from sediments collected in subwatersheds with low anthropic activity than from those ones of highly anthropic subwatersheds. Anthropic pressure on watershed can engender high sediment discharge, but these solid particles seem to present low phosphorus-releasing capacity to water during transport due to the evidenced high affinity between phosphorus and iron oxide from sediments. Anthropic pressure was related with sediment concentration and phosphorus release to aquatic systems. While natural vegetation along streams plays a role on soil and water depuration, it is unable to eliminate the phosphorus inputs intrinsic to the agricultural-intensive systems. Recommendations and perspectives The contamination of water in watershed by phosphates is facilitated by the erosion process and the traditional tobacco cropping system. Urgent measures for erosion control must be adopted, in accordance to conformations of landscape and the local inhabitants’ needs. Among them, those worth pointing out are the adoption of a conservation crop system, regeneration of riparian zone, and reduction of the phosphate doses added to soil for tobacco cultivation.