Eutrophication of surface waters has brought agricultural phosphorus to the forefront of environmental concerns. However, current testing procedures largely use the same methodologies to estimate both crop requirement needs and environmental hazard levels, with little or no consideration of vertical distribution of available phosphorus. Therefore, it is important to review various cropping systems to determine the amount of phosphorus with regard to depth and management practice, as well as the phosphorus buffer capacity of the soil. The Wisconsin Integrated Cropping System Trials (WICST), in Arlington, WI, were established in 1989 with various cropping systems, “best management” practices with reduced tillage and purposeful P drawdown, in an effort to lower input levels and reduce environmental impact while maintaining productivity and profitability. Soil cores were taken from five WICST cropping systems, including continuous corn (CS1), corn/soybean (CS2), corn/soybean/wheat-red clover (CS3), corn/alfalfa/alfalfa/alfalfa (CS4), and pasture (CS6), the latter two treatments with manure amendments. Soil cores were sectioned to a resolution of 1-cm and labile P, solution P (including soil solution displaced by heavy, immiscible liquid), and P sorption curves were determined. Analysis of vertical P distribution shows considerable trend and nonuniformity in the upper 20-cm, casting doubt on the meaningfulness of average soil test P values. Displaced soil solution P was strongly correlated with C0 from sorption experiments and the P buffer capacities were inversely related to C0 and soil solution P. Bray P was loosely correlated with C0 and soil solution P and inversely correlated with buffer capacity.