Soil organic phosphorous speciation using spectroscopic techniques

Soil Biology; Vol. 26The most commonly used differentiation of soil phosphorus (P) is between inorganic and organic forms, despite the fact that this is only the beginning of soil P speciation. Forms of inorganic and organic soil P include a large range of specific P compounds, and spectroscopic techniques can offer the best potential for determining the speciation of soil organic P. The focus of this chapter is to summarise the relative merits of three spectroscopic techniques: solution and solid state 31P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES). We aim to provide current and potential end-users of these techniques the ability to compare these methods on the basis of four criteria: sample preparation, sensitivity, resolution and quantitation.Ashlea L. Doolette and Ronald J. Smerni