Phosphorus (P) is a critical component of cellular infrastructure such as genetic blueprints (e.g., DNA, RNA) and energy transfer processes, and underpins the productivity of food systems, to which the element is added as a key fertilizer. Yet many challenges exist around the availability, application, management, and disposal or reuse of P, e.g. sourcing of P from non-renewable phosphate rock, inefficient use in food systems, and accumulation in soils and freshwater sources, the latter of which causes harmful algal blooms and hypoxia of aquatic life. Given that humans now dominate the global biogeochemical cycle of phosphorus, without understanding of these biogeochemical flows of P and the needed interventions for sustainability, the environmental and economic issues involving P will intensify with continued population growth.

To address these needs, the Science and Technologies for Phosphorus Sustainability (STEPS) Center was founded in 2021 as a NSF-supported Science and Technology Center (STC). STEPS is a convergence research center that addresses the complex challenges in P sustainability by integrating disciplinary contributions across the physical, life, social, and economic sciences. STEPS draws from atomic and molecular insights (e.g., chemistry, materials research) to develop materials, technologies, plants, and and practices that are deployed at the human scale (e.g., environmental and agricultural engineering, crop and soil sciences) while considering supply-chain logistics, life cycle, and other regional and global issues (e.g., ecology, economics, sociology).

This presentation will highlight several biogeochemistry research activities within and associated with the STEPS Center. We will introduce the concept of a Triple-Bottom-Line (TBL) Scenario Site, which are unique and complementary physical locations in which P flows and interventions are studied, the unique methods undertaken within these TBL Sites, and key results across agricultural, surface water, and wastewater systems in North Carolina, Illinois, and Florida. Highlights will include new understanding of plant use efficiency in crops, P tracking using multiple stable and unstable isotopes and models, interactions of engineered materials in the plant-soil microbiome and surface waters, and microbe engineering for P recovery.

Andrew Margenot

Appearances