Trapped Urban Phosphorus: An Overlooked and Inaccessible Stock in the Anthropogenic Phosphorus Cycle
Urban landscapes are high phosphorus (P) consumption areas and consequently generate substantial P-containing urban solid waste (domestic kitchen wastes, animal bones, and municipal sludge), due to large population. However, urbanization can also trap P through cultivated land loss and urban solid waste disposal. Trapped urban P is an overlooked and inaccessible P stock. Here, we studied how urbanization contributes to trapped urban P and how it affects the P cycle. We take China as a case study. Our results showed that China generated a total of 13 (±0.9) Tg urban trapped P between 1992-2019. This amounts to 6 (±0.5) % of the total consumed P and 9 (±0.6) % of the chemical fertilizer P used in China over that period. The loss of cultivated land accounted for 15% of the trapped urban P, and half of this was concentrated in three provinces: Shandong, Henan, and Hebei. This is primarily since nearly one-third of the newly expanded urban areas are located within these provinces. The remaining 85% of trapped urban P was associated with urban solid waste disposal. Our findings call for more actions to preserve fertile cultivated land and promote P recovery from urban solid waste through sound waste classification and recycling systems to minimize P trapped in urban areas.
Authors
- Maryna Strokal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8063-7743)
- Prakash Lakshmanan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1725-0391)
- Xiaojun Shi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5740-4098)
- Xinping Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6245-0133)
- Fusuo Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8971-0129)
- Xuanjing Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9574-4517)
- Carolien Kroeze
- Zhaohai Bai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7685-5441)
- Ying Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1737-8726)
- Zheng Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7864-3183)
- Jiechen Wu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2829-2928)
- Ning Cao (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4539-7131)
- Lin Ma (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1761-0158)
Institutions
- Southwest University (CN)
- The University of Queensland (AU)
- Sugarcane Research Center (Brazil) (BR)
- Jilin University (CN)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Center for Agricultural Resources Research (CN)
- Sustainable Development Institute (US)
- Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Science (CN)
- Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology (CN)
- Ministry of Agriculture (CA)
- Jilin Medical University (CN)
- Agriculture and Food (AU)
- Plant (United States) (US)
- Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (CN)
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology (SE)
- Wageningen University & Research (NL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Environmental Science & Technology
- Published
- 2024-10-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.4c08078
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Phosphorus and nutrient management
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.17
Funders
- University of Queensland
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Jilin University
- Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan
- Southwest University
- Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences
- Wageningen University and Research
- Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
- College of Resources and Environment, Southwest University
- Institute of Genetics