What is it about?
Has P loss decreased with better management? Trend analysis from 1980-2019 shows widespread declines in concentrations, particularly in urban rivers. Concentrations in agricultural rivers, however, have mostly increased, suggesting not-as-effective controls of nonpoint sources. Despite declining concentrations, riverine P loss (fluxes) has significantly increased, driven largely by increasing streamflow in a changing climate.
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Why is it important?
Phosphorus (P) reserves in Earth’s rocks are limited. P loss from land to rivers threatens not only food production but also aquatic ecosystem health. Long-term trend analysis of P loss has historically been limited by sparse data. Here, we overcome this limitation by leveraging weather and earth characteristics data and building a multitask deep learning model for daily concentrations and fluxes (1980–2019) in 430 rivers at the Contiguous United States.
Perspectives
Results here highlight the challenge of reducing TP loss that is complicated by changing river discharge in a warming climate.
Li Li
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This page is a summary of: Increasing phosphorus loss despite widespread concentration decline in US rivers, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, November 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2402028121.
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