Smoothing the Phosphorus Resource Stress under the Socioeconomic Development in China

作者：Jingyu Miao, Xiuheng Wang, Gang Liu, Shunwen Bai, Glen T. Daigger, Jinhao Kang, Mengyue Wang, Nanqi Ren · 发表于：Environmental Science & Technology · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1021/acs.est.3c08301 · 被引用次数：21 · 研究领域：Phosphorus and nutrient management、Constructed Wetlands for Wastewater Treatment、Wastewater Treatment and Reuse

Phosphorus (P) is the key in maintaining food security and ecosystem functions. Population growth and economic development have increased the demand for phosphate rocks. China has gradually developed from zero phosphate mining to the world's leading P miner, fertilizer, and agricultural producer since 1949. China released policies, such as designating phosphate rock as a strategic resource, promoting eco-agricultural policies, and encouraging the use of solid wastes produced in mining and the phosphorus chemical industry as construction materials. However, methodological and data gaps remain in the mapping of the long-term effects of policies on P resource efficiency. Here, P resource efficiency can be represented by the potential of the P cycle to concentrate or dilute P as assessed by substance flow analysis (SFA) complemented by statistical entropy analysis (SEA). P-flow quantification over the past 70 years in China revealed that both resource utilization and waste generation peaked around 2015, with 20 and 11 Mt of mined and wasted P, respectively. Additionally, rapidly increasing aquaculture wastewater has exacerbated pollution. The resource efficiency of the Chinese P cycle showed a U-shaped change with an overall improvement of 22.7%, except for a temporary trough in 1975. The driving force behind the efficiency decline was the roaring phosphate fertilizer industry, as confirmed by the sharp increase in P flows for both resource utilization and waste generation from t...