Network resilience of phosphorus cycling in China has shifted by natural flows, fertilizer use and dietary transitions between 1600 and 2012

Sai Liang; Yadong Yu; Ali Kharrazi; Brian D Fath; Cuiyang Feng; Glen T Daigger; Shaoqing Chen; Tieju Ma; Bing Zhu; Zhifu Mi; Zhifeng Yang

doi:10.1038/s43016-020-0098-6

Network resilience of phosphorus cycling in China has shifted by natural flows, fertilizer use and dietary transitions between 1600 and 2012

Nat Food. 2020 Jun;1(6):365-375. doi: 10.1038/s43016-020-0098-6. Epub 2020 Jun 17.

Authors

Sai Liang^#¹, Yadong Yu^#², Ali Kharrazi^{3

4}, Brian D Fath^{3

5

6}, Cuiyang Feng⁷, Glen T Daigger⁸, Shaoqing Chen^{9

10}, Tieju Ma^{11

3}, Bing Zhu^{3

12}, Zhifu Mi¹³, Zhifeng Yang^{7

14}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China. liangsai@bnu.edu.cn.
² School of Business, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, P. R. China. yuyd@ecust.edu.cn.
³ International Institute for Applied System Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria.
⁴ CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change and Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Venice, Italy.
⁵ Biology Department, Towson University, Towson, MD, USA.
⁶ Environmental Studies, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.
⁷ State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China.
⁸ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
⁹ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, P. R. China.
¹⁰ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology (Sun Yat-sen University), Guangzhou, P. R. China.
¹¹ School of Business, East China University of Science and Technology, Shanghai, P. R. China.
¹² Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, P. R. China.
¹³ The Bartlett School of Construction and Project Management, University College London, London, UK. z.mi@ucl.ac.uk.
¹⁴ Institute of Environmental and Ecological Engineering, Guangdong University of Technology, Guangzhou, P. R. China.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 37128100
DOI: 10.1038/s43016-020-0098-6

Abstract

The resilience of the phosphorus (P) cycling network is critical to ecosystem functioning and human activities. Although P cycling pathways have been previously mapped, a knowledge gap remains in evaluating the P network's ability to withstand shocks or disturbances. Applying principles of mass balance and ecological network analysis, we examine the network resilience of P cycling in China from 1600 to 2012. The results show that changes in network resilience have shifted from being driven by natural P flows for food production to being driven by industrial P flows for chemical fertilizer production. Urbanization has intensified the one-way journey of P, further deteriorating network resilience. Over 2000-2012, the network resilience of P cycling has decreased by 11% owing to dietary changes towards more animal-based foods. A trade-off between network resilience improvement and increasing food trade is also observed. These findings can support policy decisions for enhanced P cycling network resilience in China.

Abstract

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