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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-2518</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Unified Conversion Equations between Olsen and Mehlich-3 Soil Phosphorus Tests</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Simpson</surname>
<given-names>Zachary P.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8075-810X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff12">
<sup>12</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Rogers</surname>
<given-names>Christopher W.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff12">
<sup>12</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Mott</surname>
<given-names>Joshua D.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5598-5383</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Čerkasova</surname>
<given-names>Natalja</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2894-3935</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Elkin</surname>
<given-names>Kyle R.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff7">
<sup>7</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Miller</surname>
<given-names>Robert O.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff8">
<sup>8</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Bolster</surname>
<given-names>Carl H.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6646-0921</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff9">
<sup>9</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>White</surname>
<given-names>Michael J.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff10">
<sup>10</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kleinman</surname>
<given-names>Peter J. A.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff11">
<sup>11</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>USDA-ARS Northwest Irrigation and Soils Research Laboratory, Kimberly, ID, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Southern Piedmont Agricultural Research and Extension Center, Virginia Tech, Blackstone, VA, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Texas A&amp;M AgriLife Research, Temple, TX, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>Klaipėda University, Marine Research Institute, Klaipėda, Lithuania</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff7">
<label>7</label>
<addr-line>Agricultural Analytical Services Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, PA, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff8">
<label>8</label>
<addr-line>Agricultural Laboratory Proficiency Program, Collaborative Testing Services Inc., Windsor, CO, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff9">
<label>9</label>
<addr-line>USDA-ARS Food Animal Environmental System Research Unit, Bowling Green, KY, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff10">
<label>10</label>
<addr-line>USDA-ARS Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory, Temple, TX, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff11">
<label>11</label>
<addr-line>USDA-ARS Soil Management and Sugarbeet Research Unit, Fort Collins, CO, USA</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff12">
<label>12</label>
<addr-line>These authors contributed equally to this work.</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>20</day>
<month>05</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>33</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Zachary P. Simpson et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2518/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2518/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2518/egusphere-2026-2518.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-2518/egusphere-2026-2518.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Methods for soil test phosphorus (STP) differ globally and even within countries. While soil P tests often correlate, the relationship is often specific to a region or study, making any conversion equation difficult to transfer between contexts. Agronomic recommendations, P transport models, syntheses, and other works lack a strong basis for converting between STP. We fulfil this need for converting between two common STP measurements &amp;ndash; Olsen P and Mehlich-3 P &amp;ndash; through models which account explicitly for soil properties. Hypothesizing that soil properties at the sample level govern how STP values relate, we built models using a combined dataset of ca. 900 soils across the conterminous US and Canada, spanning 10 soil orders (USDA), 3 to 89 % clay, and pH 4 to 9. Model complexity ranged from conventional &amp;lsquo;region-level&amp;rsquo; regressions (no soil data) to models adapting to many facets of soil P chemistry, presenting users several viable options suitable for their data context. Depending on data availability, the user could convert between Olsen P and Mehlich-3 P with half the error or less of conventional &amp;lsquo;region-level&amp;rsquo; regressions. This reduction in conversion error impacts agronomic recommendations, environmental risk assessments (e.g., P index), and calibration of P transport models (e.g., SWAT+). While it remains best to simply measure the STP of interest, the conversion models here should prove useful in many contexts where that is not feasible. We provide the models in ready-to-use formats, depending on the covariates available to the user and whether the user wants to apply the equations in a spreadsheet or within model code.</p>
</abstract>
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<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Natural Resources Conservation Service</funding-source>
<award-id>NRC21IRA0010879</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
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