The phosphorus (P) cycle is an important Earth system process. While natural P mobilization is slow, humans have been altering P cycle by intensifying P releases from lithosphere to ecosystems. Here, we examined magnitudes of which humans have altered the P cycles by integrating the estimates from recent literatures, and furthermore illustrated the consequences. Based on our synthesis, human alterations have tripled the global P mobilization in land-water continuum and increased P accumulation in soil with 6.9 ± 3.3 Tg-P yr. Around 30% of atmospheric P transfer is caused by human activities, which plays a significant role than previously thought. Pathways involving with human alterations include phosphate extraction, fertilizers application, wastes generation, and P losses from cropland. This study highlights the importance of sustainable P supply as a control on future food security because of regional P scarcity, food demand increase and continuously P intensive food production. Besides, accelerated P loads are responsible for enhanced eutrophication worldwide, resulting in water quality impairment and aquatic biodiversity losses. Moreover, the P enrichment can definitely stimulate the cycling of carbon and nitrogen, implying the great need for incorporating P in models predicting the response of carbon and nitrogen cycles to global changes.

Purpose Nowadays, environmental sustainability of textile has gained much attention from government and suppliers due to the resource consumption and pollutant emissions. Besides, different consumer behaviors can result in quite different environmental consequences mainly in terms of water and energy consumption. Therefore, it is necessary to systematically evaluate the environmental impacts of textiles from a life cycle perspective to improve the sustainability of textiles especially for China, the biggest producer, exporter, and consumer in the world. Methods This study is conducted according to the International Organizations for Standardization's (ISO) 14040 standard series. The declared unit is a piece of 100 % cotton short-sleeved T-shirt. The production data mainly come from field investigations of representative mills in China. The use-phase data are mainly from 924 questionnaires of Chinese residents. The secondary data from databases, literatures, and authoritative statistical data are supplemented in case primary data are not available. The potential environmental impacts are evaluated using the CML2001 and USEtox methodologies built into the GaBi version 6.0 software. We determine hotspots throughout the life cycle of the cotton textile considering the impact categories of abiotic depletion, acidification potential, global warming potential, photochemical ozone creation potential, eutrophication potential, water use, and toxicity. Results and discussionThe results of the study show that cotton cultivation, dyeing, making-up, and use-phases are the main contributors to the environmental impacts. In particular, fertilizer, pesticide, and water use in cotton cultivation, coal, dyes, and auxiliaries use in dyeing, electricity use in making-up, detergent and water use in washing, and electricity use in spinning are the hotspots based on the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) results. The use-phase scenario analysis shows that compared with machine washing, electric drying, and ironing share the majority of electricity consumption. Compared with Americans, Chinese washing habits are much more environmental-friendly and bring much lower environmental impacts in the use stage. Conclusions Energy consumption, chemical use, and water use are main contributors to most impact categories, which help us to find hotspots and potential improvements of sustainability.

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