The shift of phosphorus transfers in global fisheries and aquaculture
Huang, Y.; Ciais, P.; Goll, D.S.; Sardans, J.; Peñuelas, J.; Cresto-Aleina, F.; Zhang, H. (2020). The shift of phosphorus transfers in global fisheries and aquaculture. Nature Comm. 11(1): 355. https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-14242-7
Global fish production (capture and aquaculture) has increased quickly, which has altered global flows of phosphorus (P). Here we show that in 2016, 2.041.593.09 Tg P yr(-1) (mean and interquartile range) was applied in aquaculture to increase fish production; while 1.101.041.14 Tg P yr(-1) was removed from aquatic systems by fish harvesting. Between 1950 and 1986, P from fish production went from aquatic towards the land-human systems. This landward P peaked at 0.54 Tg P yr(-1), representing a large but overlooked P flux that might benefit land activities under P scarcity. After 1986, the landward P flux decreased significantly, and became negative around 2004, meaning that humans spend more P to produce fish than harvest P in fish capture. An idealized pathway to return to the balanced anthropogenic P flow would require the mean phosphorus use efficiency (the ratio of harvested to input P) of aquaculture to be increased from a current value of 20% to at least 48% by 2050 - a big challenge. Despite growing aquaculture production and environmental concerns on phosphorus (P) enrichment, the P budgets of fisheries have been largely overlooked. Here, Huang et al. calculate global fishery P budgets and estimate P use efficiency for a wide range of aquaculture systems.
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