- Lora Cheng
- The role of carbon sources in immobilizing phosphorous in foodplain soils
- Enviornmental Sciences
Describe
your research
experience
My research interest is in understanding the mechanisms behinds floodplain soil and how it acts as a potential buffer reducing phosphorus loss into to the aqueous ecosystems.
The nonpoint source of phosphorus (P) runoff and leaching from agricultural fertilization is accelerating the growth of eutrophication in aqueous ecosystems. Floodplains play a vital role in buffering P loss from soils to the waterbodies. Our objective is to investigate the ability of floodplain soils to buffer agricultural P losses through P immobilization under the influences of carbon/phosphorus ratio of native plant residues and various organic P species. The ability of floodplain soils to retain P was assessed by measuring the microbial P, inorganic P, phosphatase activity, and total P using biogeochemical experiments throughout the 60-day incubation. The degree of P immobilization was the greatest when the soils amended with native plant residues having a C: P ratio over 300. The degree of P immobilization was also greater in soils amended with RNA and phospholipids. Overall, the quantitative relationship between organic P and inorganic P implies cycles of net mineralization and immobilization.
As one of the recipient's of OUR's Summer Undergraduate Research Grant (2017), the results of Lora's research can be found here.