Iron oxihydroxides form strong chemical bonds with phosphate anions, reducing P availability to plants. The objective of this study, conducted in 1994/95, was to quantify forms of iron oxides in soils from Uruguay, and to study their relationships with phosphorus sorption. Iron oxides extracted with dithionite-citrate-bicarbonate (Fe d) from ten soil samples (0-15 cm depth) ranged from 1598 to 8.592 mg kg-1 and were related with their parent material. Poorly ordered Fe-oxihydroxides, extracted by 0.2 mol L-1 ammonium oxalate at pH 3 (Fe03), ranged from 45.2 to 78.2% of the total iron oxides extracted by dithionite. The maximum P-sorption soil capacity (K2), estimated by the Langmuir equation, ranged from 104 to 704 mg kg-1 of soil. The P sorption was strongly correlated (r = 0.894, P < 0.01) with the poorly ordered iron oxides (Fe03). The percent of phosphorus sorbed by soils after equilibrium with 600 mg kg-1 P (P600), was significantly correlated (r = 0.975, P < 0.01) with the maximum P-sorption capacity and, with poorly crystalline Fe-minerals (r = 0.894, P < 0.01) extracted by the 0.2 mol L-1 oxalate ammonium pH 3. This index can be used to estimate the P-sorption capacity of these soils.
phosphorus sorption; maximum adsorption; binding energy; Langmuir equation; iron oxides