Regional differences in phosphorus budgets in intensive soybean agriculture
Date
2013-01Author
Riskin, Shelby H.
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Porder, Stephen
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Schipanski, Meagan E.
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Bennett, Elena M.
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Neill, Christopher
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https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5807As published
https://doi.org/10.1525/bio.2013.63.1.10DOI
10.1525/bio.2013.63.1.10Keyword
Phosphorus; Fertilizer; Soybean; Agriculture; EnvironmentAbstract
Fertilizer-intensive agriculture has been integral to increasing food production over the past half century but has been accompanied by environmental
costs. We use case studies of phosphorus fertilizer use in the world’s most productive soybean-growing regions, Iowa (United States), Mato
Grosso (Brazil), and Buenos Aires (Argentina), to examine influences of management and soil type on agriculture’s most prevalent phosphorusrelated
environmental consequences: eutrophication and consumption of Earth’s finite phosphorus reserves. With increasing phosphorus inputs,
achieving high yields on tropical soils with high phosphorus-binding capacity is becoming more common. This system has low eutrophication
risks but increases demands on phosphorus supplies. In contrast, production in traditional breadbaskets, on soils with lower phosphorus-binding
capacities, is being sustained with decreasing phosphorus inputs. However, in these regions, historical overuse of phosphorus may mean continued
eutrophication risk even as pressures on phosphorus reserves diminish. We focus here on soybean production but illustrate how achieving sustainable
agriculture involves an intricate optimization of local, regional, and global considerations.
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Author Posting. © American Institute of Biological Sciences, 2013. This article is posted here by permission of University of California Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in BioScience 63 (2013): 49-54, doi:10.1525/bio.2013.63.1.10.
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