Global and regional phosphorus budgets in agricultural systems and their implications for phosphorus-use efficiency

Abstract

Abstract. The application of phosphorus (P) fertilizer to agricultural soils increased by 3.2 % annually from 2002 to 2010. We quantified in detail the P inputs and outputs of cropland and pasture and the P fluxes through human and livestock consumers of agricultural products on global, regional, and national scales from 2002 to 2010. Globally, half of the total P inputs into agricultural systems accumulated in agricultural soils during this period, with the rest lost to bodies of water through complex flows. Global P accumulation in agricultural soil increased from 2002 to 2010 despite decreases in 2008 and 2009, and the P accumulation occurred primarily in cropland. Despite the global increase in soil P, 32 % of the world's cropland and 43 % of the pasture had soil P deficits. Increasing soil P deficits were found for African cropland vs. increasing P accumulation in eastern Asia. European and North American pasture had a soil P deficit because the continuous removal of biomass P by grazing exceeded P inputs. International trade played a significant role in P redistribution among countries through the flows of P in fertilizer and food among countries. Based on country-scale budgets and trends we propose policy options to potentially mitigate regional P imbalances in agricultural soils, particularly by optimizing the use of phosphate fertilizer and the recycling of waste P. The trend of the increasing consumption of livestock products will require more P inputs to the agricultural system, implying a low P-use efficiency and aggravating P-stock scarcity in the future. The global and regional phosphorus budgets and their PUEs in agricultural systems are publicly available at https://doi.pangaea.de

Anthropogenic global shifts in biospheric N and P concentrations and ratios and their impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem productivity, food security, and human health

“…(b) Mean (± SE ) N:P ratios of inputs of reactive N and P to the biosphere since the industrial revolution. Data are for N industrial fertilizers (Bouwman, Beusen, et al, ; Canfield, Glazer, & Falkowski, ; FAO, , , ; Fields, ; Fowler et al, ; Galloway, ; Galloway et al, , ; Galloway, Schelinger, Levy, Michaels, & Schnoor, ; Grübler, ; Gruber & Galloway, ; Gu et al, ; Lu & Tian, ; Mackenzie, Ver, & Lerman, ; Mogollón, Lassaletta, et al, ; Smil, ; Tilman et al, ; Yara Fertilizer, ), N2 fixation in cropland (Bouwman, Beusen, et al, ; Burns & Hardy, ; Canfield et al, ; Delwiche, ; Fields, ; Fowler et al, ; Galloway et al, , ; Gu et al, ; Herridge, Peoples, & Boddey, ; McElroy, Elkins, & Yung, ; Söderlund & Svensson, ), N emissions from fuel combustion (Canfield et al, ; Eriksson, ; Fields, ; Galloway et al, ; Grübler, ; Gruber & Galloway, ; Gu et al, ; Mackenzie et al, ; Reay, Dentener, Smith, Grace, & Feely, ; Robinson & Robbins, ; Söderlund & Svensson, ; Van Vuuren, Bouwman, Smith, & Dentener, ), and P industrial fertilizers (Bondre, ; Bouwman, Beusen, et al, ; FAO, , , ; Lu & Tian, ; Lun et al, ; MacDonald et al, ; Mackenzie et al, ; Smil, ; Yara Fertilizer, )…”

“…Imbalances between these two nutrients, N and P in natural, seminatural, and managed ecosystems (Carnicer et al, ; Delgado‐Baquerizo et al, ; Hu et al, ; Liu, Fu, Zheng, & Liu, ; Penuelas et al, ; Sardans & Penuelas, ; Ulm, Hellmann, Cruz, & Máguas, ), reduce C capture and global food provision and security (Kahsay, ; Lu & Tian, ; Penuelas, Ciais, et al, ; Van der Velde et al, ; Wang, Sardans, et al, ). These effects may be further exacerbated in cropland in the future by limited access to reserves of mineable P (Cordell, Rosemarin, Schröder, & Smit, ; Li et al, ; Lun et al, ; MacDonald, Bennett, Potter, & Ramankutty, ; Mew, ; Weikard, ).…”

Quantifying Nutrient Budgets for Sustainable Nutrient Management

“…While the nutrient contents in crop and animal products could be sampled and directly measured in studies on a farm scale, their quantification on broader spatial scales usually relies on the assumed concentrations of nutrients (kg nutrient per kg product) and the recorded product quantity converted to mass (Billen et al, ; Lun et al, ). However, those nutrient concentrations may vary among regions or even within the same region associated with different varieties and management practices (Guardia et al, ).…”

Integrative Crop‐Soil‐Management Modeling to Assess Global Phosphorus Losses from Major Crop Cultivations

“…P losses from croplands depend on the balance between fertilization, crop uptake and harvest of P, runoff and soil erosion, and soil P transformations. In addition, they often focused on agriculture as a whole and did not differentiate between crops (L. Bouwman et al, 2013;Lun et al, 2017;MacDonald et al, 2011;Mekonnen & Hoekstra, 2017). Previous studies did not achieve such integration, as they either were only based on the balance of P inputs and removal of P in harvested biomass while ignoring soil erosion (A. F. Bouwman et al, 2009; L. Bouwman the impacts of soil erosion without taking P fertilization, crop uptake, and within-system cycling into account (Bennett et al, 2001;Y.…”