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Electron Probe Microanalysis of Calcite Grains Containing Phosphorus in Soil¹

ABSTRACT

Calcite, comprising both clastic sand-sized grains and fossil foraminifera inherited from a marine Cretaceous ("Gault") clay, has been isolated from a haplaquept ("gleyic brown calcareous earth") in the United Kingdom and shown by wet chemical analysis to contain an average of 0.3% phosphorus. Electron probe microanalysis indicates that this phosphorus is uniformly distributed within the calcite rather than concentrated as discrete calcium phosphates, and it is concluded that it was biogenic/diagenic rather than pedogenic in origin. Such sources constitute 50–80% of the total soil phosphorus and would be relatively available in the upper horizons of the profile.

¹ Contribution from the Dep. of Biochemistry and Soil Sci., Univ. College of North Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd, U.K.

² Associate Professor, Dep. of Soil Sci., Agric. Univ., Lyallpur, Pakistan; Senior Lecturer, Univ. College of North Wales.

Received for publication December 19, 1977. Accepted for publication May 26, 1978.