Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Long-term accumulation and transport of anthropogenic phosphorus in three river basins

Nature Geoscience volume 9, pages 353–356 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Global food production depends on phosphorus. Phosphorus is broadly applied as fertilizer, but excess phosphorus contributes to eutrophication of surface water bodies and coastal ecosystems1. Here we present an analysis of phosphorus fluxes in three large river basins, including published data on fertilizer, harvested crops, sewage, food waste and river fluxes2,3,4. Our analyses reveal that the magnitude of phosphorus accumulation has varied greatly over the past 30–70 years in mixed agricultural–urban landscapes of the Thames Basin, UK, the Yangtze Basin, China, and the rural Maumee Basin, USA. Fluxes of phosphorus in fertilizer, harvested crops, food waste and sewage dominate over the river fluxes. Since the late 1990s, net exports from the Thames and Maumee Basins have exceeded inputs, suggesting net mobilization of the phosphorus pool accumulated in earlier decades. In contrast, the Yangtze Basin has consistently accumulated phosphorus since 1980. Infrastructure modifications such as sewage treatment and dams may explain more recent declines in total phosphorus fluxes from the Thames and Yangtze Rivers3,4. We conclude that human-dominated river basins may undergo a prolonged but finite accumulation phase when phosphorus inputs exceed agricultural demand, and this accumulated phosphorus may continue to mobilize long after inputs decline.

Your institute does not have access to this article

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1: Component P fluxes used in calculating the net annual P inputs for the three river basins (Maumee River, USA; Thames River, UK; Yangtze River, China).
Figure 2: Gross P inputs and outputs to/from the landscape P pool (soils plus aquatic systems) of the Maumee and Thames Basins.
Figure 3: Net annual P input and accumulation curves for landscape P pools (soils plus aquatic systems) of three river basins (Maumee River, USA; Thames River, UK; Yangtze River, China).

References

  1. Smith, V. H. & Schindler, D. W. Eutrophication science: where do we go from here? Trends Ecol. Evol. 24, 201–207 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Baker, D. B. & Richards, R. P. Phosphorus budgets and riverine phosphorus export in northwestern Ohio watersheds. J. Environ. Qual. 31, 96–108 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Dai, Z. J., Du, J. Z., Zhang, X. L., Su, N. & Li, J. F. Variation of riverine material loads and environmental consequences on the Changjiang (Yangtze) Estuary in recent decades (1955–2008). Environ. Sci. Technol. 45, 223–227 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Haygarth, P. M. et al. Sustainable phosphorus management and the need for a long-term perspective: the legacy hypothesis. Environ. Sci. Technol. 48, 8417–8419 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Falkowski, P. et al. The global carbon cycle: a test of our knowledge of Earth as a system. Science 290, 291–296 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Villalba, G., Liu, Y., Schroder, H. & Ayres, R. U. Global phosphorus flows in the industrial economy from a production perspective. J. Ind. Ecol. 12, 557–569 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Steffen, W. et al. Planetary boundaries: guiding human development on a changing planet. Science 347, 1259855 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Withers, P. J. A., Sylvester-Bradley, R., Jones, D. L., Healey, J. R. & Talboys, P. J. Feed the crop not the soil: rethinking phosphorus management in the food chain. Environ. Sci. Technol. 48, 6523–6530 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Obersteiner, M., Penuelas, J., Ciais, P., van der Velde, M. & Janssens, I. A. The phosphorus trilemma. Nature Geosci. 6, 897–898 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Elser, J. & Bennett, E. A broken biogeochemical cycle. Nature 478, 29–31 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Childers, D. L., Corman, J., Edwards, M. & Elser, J. J. Sustainability challenges of phosphorus and food: solutions from closing the human phosphorus cycle. Bioscience 61, 117–124 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Bennett, E. M., Carpenter, S. R. & Caraco, N. F. Human impact on erodable phosphorus and eutrophication: a global perspective. BioScience 51, 227–234 (2001).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Sharpley, A. et al. Phosphorus legacy: overcoming the effects of past management practices to mitigate future water quality impairment. J. Environ. Qual. 42, 1308–1326 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Jarvie, H. P. et al. Water quality remediation faces unprecedented challenges from ‘legacy phosphorus’. Environ Sci. Technol. 47, 8997–8998 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  15. Carpenter, S. R. & Bennett, E. M. Reconsideration of the planetary boundary for phosphorus. Environ. Res. Lett. 6, 014009 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Kirchner, J. W., Feng, X. H. & Neal, C. Fractal stream chemistry and its implications for contaminant transport in catchments. Nature 403, 524–527 (2000).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Meals, D. W., Dressing, S. A. & Davenport, T. E. Lag time in water quality response to best management practices: a review. J. Environ. Qual. 39, 85–96 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. MacDonald, G. K. & Bennett, E. M. Phosphorus accumulation in Saint Lawrence River watershed soils: a century-long perspective. Ecosystems 12, 621–635 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Sattari, S. Z., Bouwman, A. F., Giller, K. E. & vanIttersum, M. K. Residual soil phosphorus as the missing piece in the global phosphorus crisis puzzle. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 109, 6348–6353 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Hale, R. L., Grimm, N. B., Vörösmarty, C. J. & Fekete, B. Nitrogen and phosphorus fluxes from watersheds of the northeast US from 1930 to 2000: role of anthropogenic nutrient inputs, infrastructure, and runoff. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 29, 341–356 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  21. Hong, B. et al. Evaluating regional variation of net anthropogenic nitrogen and phosphorus inputs (NANI/NAPI), major drivers, nutrient retention pattern and management implications in the multinational areas of Baltic Sea basin. Ecol. Model. 227, 117–135 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Garnier, J. et al. Phosphorus budget in the water-agro-food system at nested scales in two contrasted regions of the world (ASEAN-8 and EU-27). Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 29, 1348–1368 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Galloway, J. N. et al. Transformation of the nitrogen cycle: recent trends, questions, and potential solutions. Science 320, 889–892 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Sen, I. S. & Peucker-Ehrenbrink, B. Anthropogenic disturbance of element cycles at the Earth’s surface. Environ. Sci. Technol. 46, 8601–8609 (2012).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Landers, J. Toledo water crisis highlights need to reduce phosphorus in Lake Erie. Civil Eng. 84, 27–32 (2014).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Li, H. G. et al. Past, present, and future use of phosphorus in Chinese agriculture and its influence on phosphorus losses. Ambio 44, S274–S285 (2015).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Seitzinger, S. P. et al. Global river nutrient export: a scenario analysis of past and future trends. Glob. Biogeochem. Cycles 24, 003587 (2010).

    Google Scholar 

  28. Simons, A., Solomon, D., Chibssa, W., Blalock, G. & Lehmann, J. Filling the phosphorus fertilizer gap in developing countries. Nature Geosci. 7, 3 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. MacDonald, G. K., Bennett, E. M., Potter, P. A. & Ramankutty, N. Agronomic phosphorus imbalances across the world’s croplands. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108, 3086–3091 (2011).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Scavia, D. et al. Assessing and addressing the re-eutrophication of Lake Erie: central basin hypoxia. J. G. Lakes Res. 40, 226–246 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Work was supported by the NSF Research Coordination Network Science, Engineering, and Education for Sustainability Program (RCN-SEES, award #1230603), the University of Notre Dame Environmental Change Initiative, the National Basic Research Program of China (973-2015CB150405), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31330070), and the Washington State University Center for Environmental Research, Education, and Outreach (CEREO).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Environmental Research, Education, and Outreach (CEREO), Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164, USA

    Stephen M. Powers

  2. International Plant Nutrition Institute, Guelph, Ontario N1G 1LB, Canada

    Thomas W. Bruulsema

  3. Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham DH1 3LE, UK

    Tim P. Burt

  4. School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA

    Neng Iong Chan & James J. Elser

  5. Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW, UK

    Philip M. Haygarth

  6. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TR, UK

    Nicholas J. K. Howden

  7. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxfordshire OX10 8BB, UK

    Helen P. Jarvie

  8. Department of Plant Nutrition, China Agricultural University, Key Laboratory of Plant-Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, 100094 Beijing, China

    Yang Lyu, Jianbo Shen & Fusuo Zhang

  9. Minnesota Department of Agriculture, St Paul, Minnesota 55155, USA

    Heidi M. Peterson

  10. Crop, Soil, & Environmental Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701, USA

    Andrew N. Sharpley

  11. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, UK

    Fred Worrall

Authors
  1. Stephen M. Powers
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Thomas W. Bruulsema
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Tim P. Burt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Neng Iong Chan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. James J. Elser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Philip M. Haygarth
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Nicholas J. K. Howden
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Helen P. Jarvie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Yang Lyu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Heidi M. Peterson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Andrew N. Sharpley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Jianbo Shen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Fred Worrall
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Fusuo Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

S.M.P. led the writing of the paper, compiled the data, and analysed the data. Key P data sets were contributed by H.P.J., N.J.K.H., F.W., T.W.B. and J.S. All authors participated in the interpretation of results and the writing and editing process.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stephen M. Powers.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information (PDF 1226 kb)

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Information (XLS 117 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Powers, S., Bruulsema, T., Burt, T. et al. Long-term accumulation and transport of anthropogenic phosphorus in three river basins. Nature Geosci 9, 353–356 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2693

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2693

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing