The role of microbes associated with organic and inorganic substrates in phosphorus spiralling in a woodland stream

Laboratory and field experiments were conducted to determine if nutrient spiralling is primarily a biological process. The experiments were conducted to examine the role of microbial uptake and abiotic sorption onto organic and inorganic substrates in the uptake of PO/sub 4/-P in Walker Branch, a small, first-order woodland stream in east Tennessee, to estimate the total, microbial, and adsorptive pool sizes of exchangeable phosphorus associated with five particulate organic matter from this stream, and to measure the turnover rate of PO/sub 4/-P by live and sterile inorganic substrates in Walker Branch.