Phosphorus Loss from Soil to Water

About this book

Phosphorus is an essential element for plant growth and its input has long been recognised as necessary to maintain profitable crop production. However, phosphorus inputs can also increase the biological activity of surface waters and this can lead to the destruction of such aquatic ecosystems. Advanced eutrophication of surface water leads to problems with its use for fisheries, recreation, industry and drinking, due to the increased growth of undesirable algae and aquatic weeds, and oxygen shortages caused by their death and decomposition. It is therefore important to have a good understanding of the causes and mode of phosphorus loss from soil to water, to enable the problems to be controlled and managed.

Contents

Phosphorus in agriculture and its environmental implications; estimating the contribution from agriculture to the phosphorus load in surface water; phosphorus losses from agriculture to surface waters in the Nordic countries; reconstructing historical phosphorus concentrations in rural lakes using diatom models; the dynamics of phosphorus in freshwater and marine environments; the behaviour of soil and fertilizer phosphorus; setting and justifying upper critical limits for phosphorus in soils; phosphorus fertilizer strategies - present and future; sources and pathways of phosphorus loss from agriculture; hydrologic and chemical controls on phosphorus loss from catchments; loss of phosphorus in drainage water; sustainable phosphorus management in agriculture; phosphorus requirements for animal production; nutrient management planning; a European fertilizer industry view on the retention and loss of phosphorus in and from agricultural soils; the European perspective; phosphorus loss in surface runnoff, leaching and erosion; catchment studies, modelling and management; phosphorus status of soils and fertilizer recommendations.

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