Reconsideration of the planetary boundary for phosphorus

By Stephen R. Carpenter, E. Bennett. 2011

417 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Phosphorus (P) is a critical factor for food production, yet surface freshwaters and some coastal waters are highly sensitive to eutrophication by excess P. A planetary boundary, or upper tolerable limit, for P discharge to the oceans is thought to be ten times the pre-industrial rate, or more than three times the current rate. However this boundary does not take account of freshwater eutrophication. We analyzed the global P cycle to estimate planetary boundaries for freshwater eutrophication. Planetary boundaries were computed for the input of P to freshwaters, the input of P to terrestrial soil, and the mass of P in soil. Each boundary was computed for two water quality targets, 24 mg P m − 3, a typical target for lakes and reservoirs, and 160 mg m − 3, the approximate pre-industrial P concentration in the world’s rivers. Planetary boundaries were also computed using three published estimates of current P flow to the sea. Current conditions exceed all planetary boundaries for P. Substantial differences between current conditions and planetary boundaries demonstrate the contrast between large amounts of P needed for food production and the high sensitivity of freshwaters to pollution by P runoff. At the same time, some regions of the world are P-deficient, and there are some indications that a global P shortage is possible in coming decades. More efficient recycling and retention of P within agricultural ecosystems could maintain or increase food production while reducing P pollution and improving water quality. Spatial heterogeneity in the global P cycle suggests that recycling of P in regions of excess and transfer of P to regions of deficiency could mitigate eutrophication, increase agricultural yield, and delay or avoid global P shortage.

Subfields: Environmental Chemistry, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/72d5e3f3ae6ccf7d0093f06e98a71ad72357da0f

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Citations in the corpus

Planetary boundaries: Guiding human development on a changing planet (2015, methodology): “G. K. MacDonald, E. M. Bennett, P. A. Potter, N. Ramankutty, Agronomic phosphorus imbalances across the world’s croplands.”
An integrated framework for sustainable development goals (2014, background): “For example, the management of phosphorus use (GSO 5) to intensify food production (SDG 2) and minimize ecosystem impacts (SDG 5; Carpenter and Bennett 2011) could be addressed at the same time as deliberately and constructively, and possibly more efficiently, seeking to ensure food security in…”
The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene (2016, background): “5 Tg year, is twice the background weathering rate of P released during the Holocene (49).”
Safe and just operating spaces for regional social-ecological systems (2014, background): “Recently published commentaries include refinement of the boundaries for phosphorus (Carpenter and Bennett, 2011), nitrogen (de Vries et al., 2013) and freshwater use (Rockström and Karlberg, 2010); the proposal of a potential state shift in the global biosphere (Barnosky et al., 2012); a new…”
Life's Bottleneck: Sustaining the World's Phosphorus for a Food Secure Future (2014, background): “MacDonald GK, Bennett EM, Potter PA, Ramankutty N. 2011.”
Nitrogen Fertilization. A Review of the Risks Associated with the Inefficiency of Its Use and Policy Responses (2021, background): “Since 1950, dead zones have been reported from more than 500 systems in coastal and inland water, affecting a total area of more than 300,000 square kilometers [89–91] Carpenter and Bennett [29] mention that wetland, lakes, and freshwater maximum tolerable limit of inputs nutrient receiving has alre”
Peak Phosphorus: Clarifying the Key Issues of a Vigorous Debate about Long-Term Phosphorus Security (2011, background): “Further, these environmental challenges are compounded by ongoing and increasing phosphorus pollution problems leading to eutrophication and dead zones around the world [46].”
Approaching a dynamic view on the availability of mineral resources: What we may learn from the case of phosphorus? (2013, background): “In both fresh and marine waters, this has caused severe negative impacts from eutrophication and hypotoxia (Carpenter and Bennett, 2011).”
Equity and sustainability in the Anthropocene: a social–ecological systems perspective on their intertwined futures (2018, background): “It is notable in the distribution of greenhouse gas budgets [62], the use and degradation of global biodiversity [63], biogeochemical inputs into food systems [64], and many other resources [65] among nations and population groups.”