Can Organic P Inputs Alleviate P Limitation Effects on Nutrient Uptake and Biological N2‑Fixing Capacity of Hairy Vetch (Vicia villosa)? Said Pullicino, Daniel Lizcano Toledo, Rodolfo Fernández Ondoño, Emilia Legume cover crop Phosphorus deficiency Phytic acid Stable isotope dilution Phosphatase activity Phosphorus (P) is a limiting nutrient in many agroecosystems and, apart from affecting plant growth, can also limit biological N2 fixation (BNF) by leguminous plants. Thus, increasing P supply can have a positive effect on BNF particularly in P-deficient soils. Here, we provide new insights into the response of hairy vetch (Vicia villosa), widely adopted as a legume cover crop, to P limitations, by comparing the effects of inorganic (Pi) and organic (Po) P supply on plant growth and BNF capacity. This was achieved by means of a greenhouse experiment in which rhizobia-inoculated hairy vetch was grown in a P-limited agricultural soil and changes in plant growth, nitrogen (N) and P uptake, BNF capacity, and soil phosphatases activities were evaluated as a function of Pi and Po inputs, in the form of orthophosphate or phytic acid, respectively. When compared to P-deficient conditions where BNF was primarily limited by plant growth rather than directly due to the high P costs of symbiotic N fixation, Pi addition substantially enhanced plant growth (threefold), nodule formation (16-fold), P acquisition (sixfold), and BNF efficiency (sevenfold). In contrast, even with the addition of the highest dose of Po, the increase in plant growth, nodule formation, P acquisition, and BNF capacity (1.7, 3.5, 2.4 and 2.1-fold, respectively) was much less expressed, indicating that hairy vetch could only minimally access Po sources over the growth period in order to alleviate the P limitation effect on N2 fixation in under P-deficient conditions. These findings suggest that hairy vetch will not be able to provide sufficient BNF for improving soil N inputs in low-fertility cropping systems that rely on organic inputs. 2022-11-04T13:07:52Z 2022-11-04T13:07:52Z 2022-10-03 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Said-Pullicino, D... [et al.]. Can Organic P Inputs Alleviate P Limitation Effects on Nutrient Uptake and Biological N2-Fixing Capacity of Hairy Vetch (Vicia villosa)?. J Soil Sci Plant Nutr (2022). [https://doi.org/10.1007/s42729-022-01012-6] https://hdl.handle.net/10481/77758 10.1007/s42729-022-01012-6 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 4.0 Internacional Springer