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Shaping Future Phosphorus Management Pathways by Understanding the Past and Present
Citation:
Metson, G., J. Compton, D. Cordrell, J. Harrison, AND D. Iwaniec. Shaping Future Phosphorus Management Pathways by Understanding the Past and Present. Presented at American, San Francisco, CA, December 13 - 18, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
Phosphorus is both a limiting resource for food production and a waste product that can lead to harmful algal blooms in aquatic ecosystems. Management of phosphorus must include more efficient use and re-use, and many of these decisions are influenced by waste management in urban centers. To enhance understanding of the relationship between human activities, NRC post-doc Genevieve Metson, along with EPA scientist Jana Compton and colleagues in the US and Australia, is measuring P additions from 1950 to 2007 at the county level for the seven major US hydrologic basins. She is examining the temporal relationship between net P additions and water quality in order to identify especially important time periods for P management. The P-FUTURES project, a partnership between researchers and stakeholders to advance and understand the process of social transformation, focuses on the role of urban ecosystems in future sustainable P management. This project compares pathways to more sustainable P management in the cites of Phoenix, USA; Sydney, Australia; Hanoi, Vietnam; and Blantyre, Malawi. In Malawi for example this work has identified links between decreasing nutrient losses and deforestation and hydroelectric power. Preliminary results from both on-going projects allow us to gain insight into how local context shapes P cycling and locally-appropriate solutions.
Description:
Sustainable phosphorus (P) management in agricultural and urban ecosystems is necessary to ensure global food security and healthy aquatic ecosystems. Researchers and decision-makers alike need to understand how social, economic, political, and biophysical factors interact to create risks and opportunities around future P cycling. For example, P can accumulate in soils and be lost to waterways over a long-time scale. Such lags between application, use, and transport of P could affect our ability to identify sources of P enrichment of surface waters and, consequently, influence the development of strategies to limit water quality degradation. To enhance understanding of the relationship between human activities, P loading to the landscape and P loading to surface waters, we are examining cumulative P additions from 1950 to 2007 at the county level for the seven major US hydrologic basins. We examine the temporal relationship between net P additions and water quality in order to identify especially important time periods for P management. We also compare the timing of P additions and losses across hydrologic basins. Concurrently, the P-FUTURES project, a partnership between researchers and stakeholders to advance and understand the process of social transformation, focuses on the role of urban ecosystems in future sustainable P management. In this project we are using a cross-city comparison approach and transdisciplinary methods, including participatory workshops and future visioning activities, to determine pathways to more sustainable P management in Phoenix, USA; Sydney, Australia; Hanoi, Vietnam; and Blantyre, Malawi. In Blantyre for example we have identified possible synergies between decreasing nutrient losses and deforestation and exciting municipal goals to increase affordable hydroelectric power. Preliminary results from both on-going projects allow us to gain insight into how local context shapes P cycling and locally-appropriate solutions.