Improving the sustainability of phosphorus use in arable farming

全球对粮食的需求不断增加，对优质磷矿储量减少的担忧，化肥生产对气候变化的影响，化肥价格波动，以及磷污染对环境、社会和经济的不利影响，都要求开发创新和更可持续的解决方案，以便在农场使用和管理磷。目前的生产系统依赖于高水溶性肥料的投入，以保持土壤中大量的背景磷储备。因此，作物对施用磷的回收率很低（<30%），这种低效率不仅是资源浪费，而且还增加了土壤径流中磷的损失，从而增加了富营养化的风险。全球磷矿产量可能在未来20年内达到峰值，而据估计，富营养化每年将使英国损失超过7500万英镑。在耕地耕作系统中使用磷的一个潜在的替代和更可持续的战略是保持较低的土壤磷背景，但辅以更有针对性的磷施用和/或使用更有效的肥料，和/或从家庭或牲畜废水中回收的肥料。我们在此提出，采用这些更可持续的磷利用策略将降低种植成本和目前对提高土壤磷肥力的依赖，因此将有助于保护有限的全球磷储备，减少从土地径流中输出的磷。在本提案中，一个多学科、跨行业的研究团队将调查和开发磷管理的新方向，这将提高耕地作物的磷利用效率，最大限度地回收废水中的磷，减少对磷矿储量的压力，并最大限度地减少更广泛的环境影响。通过多中心建模、实验室研究和田间试验，我们将比较和开发提高磷利用效率的方法，通过(a)减少土壤对施磷素的固定，(b)提高施磷素对作物的可及性，(c)提高对土壤中以前被认为大部分无法被作物利用的磷的利用。维持较低土壤磷肥力所带来的经济效益和更广泛的环境效益的大小需要在一系列土壤类型和耕作制度中进行量化。完成后，该项目将提供新颖且有利可图的土壤和肥料管理策略，帮助农民保持其农场业务的经济可行性，并满足《水框架指令》对磷肥管理的任何未来限制。该项目将涉及传统农业、LEAF农业和有机农业系统，并将涉及国际公认的可持续农业和全球粮食安全关键问题的海外合作。BBSRC资助的项目将开发数学模型和优化技术来描述种植系统对磷酸盐的移动和吸收。

The increasing global demand for food, concerns over dwindling reserves of good quality phosphate rock and the climate-change impacts of fertiliser manufacture, fluctuating fertiliser prices, and the adverse environmental, social and economic consequences of phosphorus (P) pollution of water require the development of innovative and more sustainable solutions to the use and management of P on farms. Current systems of production rely on inputs of highly water-soluble fertilisers to maintain large reserves of background P in the soil. Recovery of applied P by crops is consequently low (<30%) and this inefficiency is not only wasteful of resources but also increases the risk of eutrophication through increased P loss in runoff from land. A peak in global phosphate rock production could occur within the next two decades whilst eutrophication is estimated to be costing the UK over £75 million per annum. A potential alternative and more sustainable strategy for P use in arable farming systems is to maintain a lower background of soil P but supplement this with more targeted P applications and/or by fertilisers that are more efficiently used, and/or fertilisers recovered from domestic or livestock wastewaters. We propose here that adoption of these more sustainable P use strategies will reduce growing costs and current dependence on elevated soil P-fertility, so will help to preserve finite global reserves of P and reduce export of P in runoff from land. In this proposal a multi-disciplinary, cross-industry research team will investigate and develop a new direction for P management that will improve P-use efficiency in arable crops, maximise recycling of wastewater P, reduce the pressure on rock phosphate reserves and minimise wider environmental impacts. Through multi-centre modelling, laboratory studies and field experiments we will compare and develop methods to improve P-use efficiency by (a) reducing the fixation of applied P by soils, (b) improving the accessibility of applied P to crops, and (c) improving the exploitation of soil P previously considered to be largely unavailable to crops. The magnitude of the economic and wider environmental benefits from maintaining lower soil P-fertility need to be quantified across a range of soil types and cropping systems. On completion, the project will deliver novel and profitable soil and fertiliser management strategies that will help farmers maintain the economic viability of their farm businesses and meet any future restrictions on P management under the Water Framework Directive. The project will have relevance across the spectrum of conventional, LEAF and organic farming systems and will involve overseas collaboration on what is internationally recognised as a key issue for sustainable farming and global food security. BBSRC funded project will develop mathematical models and optimisation techniques to describe phosphate movement and uptake by cropping systems.