TY - JOUR A1 - Vogel, Christian A1 - Sekine, R. A1 - Steckenmesser, D. A1 - Lombi, E. A1 - Steffens, D. A1 - Adam, Christian T1 - Phosphorus availability of sewage sludge-based fertilizers determined by the diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) technique T2 - Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science N2 - The plant-availability of phosphorus (P) in fertilizers and soil can strongly influence the yield of agricultural crops. However, there are no methods to efficiently and satisfactorily analyze the plant-availability of P in sewage sludge-based P fertilizers except by undertaking time-consuming and complex pot or field experiments. We employed the diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) technique to quantify the plant P availability of various types of P fertilizers with a novel focus on sewage sludge-based P fertilizers. Mixtures of fertilizer and soil were incubated for 3 weeks at 60% water holding capacity. DGT devices were deployed at the beginning of the incubation and again after 1, 2, and 3 weeks. Two weeks of incubation were sufficient for the formation of plant-available P in the fertilizer/soil mixtures. In a pot experiment, the DGT technique predicted maize (Zea mays L.) biomass yield and P uptake significantly more accurately than standard chemical extraction tests for P fertilizers (e.g., water, citric acid, and neutral ammonium citrate). Therefore, the DGT technique can be recommended as a reliable and robust method to screen the performance of different types of sewage sludge-based P fertilizers for maize cultivation minimizing the need for time-consuming and costly pot or field experiments. PB - Wiley VCH Verlag KW - Soil testing KW - Chemical extraction tests KW - Phosphate recovery KW - Plant growth experiments KW - Recycling PY - 2017 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/42413 AN - OPUS4-42413 VL - 180 IS - 5 SP - 594 EP - 601 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany