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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Aspects of phosphorus transfer from soils in Europe

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Imbalanced nutrient management has caused soil phosphorus (P) to become an environmental rather an agronomic problem in more economically developed countries. This subject has been the topic of numerous journal special issues, conferences, and reviews but we consider yet another review of this subject is necessary with the main target of providing a point of view on non-point transfer from soils and control strategies for an improved environmental management of P. This review considers the causes of the excessive P transfer from soil to surface water in Europe and the scientific knowledge necessary to develop control strategies. There has been an increasing trend towards the P-research integration across Europe. The identification of critical source areas (CSA) for P loss at catchment level and the selection of best management practices (BMP) adapted at individual CSA are recognized by the scientific community as a main goal to reduce P losses. However, the adaptation of the CSA conceptual framework at European scale is not undemanding, not only due to the administrative differences between countries, but also to the heterogeneity of the landscape (area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors; CoE [2000]) in Europe (larger than in N America), the wide range of land use and management, and also to differences in the basic scientific information available in each country necessary to perform it. In the EU, policy context and environmental concerns about the effect of nutrient excesses in water were reflected in EU directives (early 1990s) mainly focussed on the reduction of nitrogen loads. Nevertheless, a large number of scientific outcomes have revealed that reduction of P loss to surface water bodies is one of the main factors for obtaining higher quality of fresh- and seawaters, which must result in new EU directives also focussed in nonpoint pollution related to P load.