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δ18O as a tracer of PO43- losses from agricultural landscapes
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  • Naomi Wells,
  • Daren C Gooddy,
  • Mustefa Yasin Reshid,
  • Peter J Williams,
  • Andrew C Smith,
  • Bradley D Eyre
Naomi Wells
Lincoln University

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Daren C Gooddy
British Geological Survey
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Mustefa Yasin Reshid
Southern Cross University
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Peter J Williams
British Geological Survey
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Andrew C Smith
British Geological Survey
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Bradley D Eyre
Southern Cross University
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Abstract

Accurately tracing the sources and fate of excess PO43- in waterways is necessary for sustainable catchment management. The natural abundance isotopic composition of O in PO43- (δ18OP) is a promising tracer of point source pollution, but its ability to track diffuse agricultural pollution is unclear. We tested the hypothesis that δ18OP could distinguish between agricultural PO43- sources by measuring the integrated δ18OP composition and P speciation of contrasting inorganic fertilisers (compound v rock) and soil textures (sand, loam, clay). δ18OP composition differed between the three soil textures sampled across six working livestock farms: sandy soils had lower overall δ18OP values (21 ± 1 ‰) than the loams (23 ± 1 ‰), which corresponded with a smaller, but more readily leachable, PO43- pool. Fertilisers had greater δ18OP variability (~8‰) driven by both fertiliser type and manufacturing year. Upscaling these values showed that ‘agricultural soil leaching’ δ18OP signatures could span from 18 – 25 ‰, and are influenced by both fertiliser type and the time between application and leaching. These findings emphasise the potential of δ18OP to untangle soil-fertiliser P dynamics under controlled conditions, but that its use to trace catchment-scale agricultural PO43- losses is limited by uncertainties in soil biological P cycling and its associated isotopic fractionation.