Phosphorus in agricultural soils: drivers of its distribution at the global scale

Ringeval, Bruno; Augusto, Laurent; Monod, Herve; van Apeldoorn, Dirk; Bouwman, Lex; Yang, Xiaojuan; Achat, David L.; Chini, Louise P.; Van Oost, Kristof; Guenet, Bertrand; Wang, Rong; Decharme, Bertrand; Nesme, Thomas; Pellerin, Sylvain

doi:10.1111/gcb.13618

Title: Phosphorus in agricultural soils: drivers of its distribution at the global scale

Journal Article · Mon Jan 09 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Global Change Biology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.13618· OSTI ID:1408047

^[1]; Augusto, Laurent ^[1]; Monod, Herve ^[2]; van Apeldoorn, Dirk ^[3]; Bouwman, Lex ^[3];

^[4]; Achat, David L. ^[1]; Chini, Louise P. ^[5]; Van Oost, Kristof ^[6]; Guenet, Bertrand ^[7]; Wang, Rong ^[8]; Decharme, Bertrand ^[9]; Nesme, Thomas ^[1]; Pellerin, Sylvain ^[1]

ISPA, Villenave d'Ornon (France)
Univ. Paris-Saclay, Jouy-en-Josas (France)
Utrecht Univ., Utrecht (The Netherlands)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States)
Univ. Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium)
Univ. Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette (France)
Univ. Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette (France); Peking Univ., Beijing (China)
CNRS/Meteo-France, Toulouse (France)

Phosphorus (P) availability in soils limits crop yields in many regions of the world, while excess of soil P triggers aquatic eutrophication in other regions. Numerous processes drive the global spatial distribution of P in agricultural soils, but their relative roles remain unclear. Here, we combined several global datasets describing these drivers with a soil P dynamics model to simulate the distribution of P in agricultural soils and to assess the contributions of the different drivers at the global scale. We analyzed both the labile inorganic P (P_ILAB), a proxy of the pool involved in plant nutrition and the total soil P (P_TOT). We found that the soil biogeochemical background (BIOG) and farming practices (FARM) were the main drivers of the spatial variability in cropland soil P content but that their contribution varied between P_TOT vs P_ILAB. Indeed, 97% of the P_TOT spatial variability could be explained by BIOG, while BIOG and FARM explained 41% and 58% of P_ILAB spatial variability, respectively. Other drivers such as climate, soil erosion, atmospheric P deposition and soil buffering capacity made only very small contribution. Lastly, our study is a promising approach to investigate the potential effect of P as a limiting factor for agricultural ecosystems and for global food production. Additionally, we quantified the anthropogenic perturbation of P cycle and demonstrated how the different drivers are combined to explain the global distribution of agricultural soil P.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1408047

Journal Information:: Global Change Biology, Vol. 23, Issue 8; ISSN 1354-1013

Publisher:: WileyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 60 works

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60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
agricultural soils
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global scale
modelling
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Title: Phosphorus in agricultural soils: drivers of its distribution at the global scale

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