The Human Intensified Global Phosphorus Flows and Environmental Impacts

Liu, Y. (2006). The Human Intensified Global Phosphorus Flows and Environmental Impacts. IIASA Interim Report. IIASA, Laxenburg, Austria: IR-06-081

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Abstract

Human activities have significantly intensified natural phosphorus cycles, which resulted in some serious environmental problems that modern societies are facing today. This paper attempts to quantify global phosphorus fluxes associated with present mining, farming, animal feeding and household consumption. Varieties of physical characteristics of the related phosphorus fluxes as well as their environmental impacts in different economies, including the United State, European countries and China, are taken into consideration. Particular attentions are given to the global phosphorus budget in cropland and the movement and transformation of phosphorus in soil, because these phosphorus flows in relation with the farming sector constitute major fluxes that dominate the anthropogenic phosphorus cycle. The results show that the global input of phosphorus to cropland, in both inorganic and organic forms from various sources, cannot compensate the removal in harvests and the losses of erosion and runoff. A net loss of phosphorus from the world's cropland is estimated at about 10.5 MMT P each year, nearly one half of the applied phosphorus.

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