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Updated: Oct 7, 2026

Measuring Phosphorus Release in Laboratory Microcosms for Water Quality Assessment
Published on: July 22, 2019
Phosphatase kinetics reveal mechanistic pathways of soil phosphorus recovery during long-term desert revegetation
Mingzhu He1,2,3, Chunming Xin4, Chengyi Li5
1Key Laboratory of Ecological Safety and Sustainable Development in Arid Lands, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China.
Abstract:
Phosphorus (P) limitation constrains dryland restoration, yet how phosphatase kinetics regulate soil P recovery remains unclear. We quantified P fractions and the activities and kinetic traits of alkaline phosphomonoesterase (PM), phosphodiesterase (PD), and inorganic pyrophosphatase (IP) across three desert restoration types: mobile dunes, a 31-year artificially revegetated desert, and natural vegetation in the Tengger Desert. Revegetation increased total, organic, and available P and enhanced PM and PD activities, substrate affinity, and catalytic efficiency, reflected by lower K m and K m /V max . Multivariate analyses showed that phosphatase kinetic traits explained 67.9% of the variation in P fractions. PM and PD were mainly associated with organic P mineralization, whereas IP kinetics were more closely linked to Ca-bound P fractions. These results reveal complementary phosphatase pathways regulating P turnover during desert revegetation and identify enzyme kinetic traits as potential process-based indicators of biochemical recovery in dryland restoration.
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