Economic World: While phosphorus is an essential element for plant metabolism and growth, its future supply trend is uncertain due to high levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Phosphorus (P) is an essential element for all living organisms. Trees have an urgent need for phosphorus to achieve normal growth and maturity.

This element plays an essential role in photosynthesis, respiration, energy storage and transfer, cell division, cell enlargement and many other processes in plants. To complete the natural production cycle in plants, phosphorus must be present, which is considered to be one of the key components in the plant structure and plays a role as a catalyst in many main biochemical reactions. This element is specifically effective in absorbing and converting solar energy into usable plant compounds.

Deficiency of this important nutrient can lead to reduced crop yields in farms, especially in poorer countries. It is more difficult to detect the lack of phosphorus in the plant than the lack of other components such as nitrogen and potassium. In the early growth stages of the plant, usually the plant does not show specific signs of phosphorus deficiency, compared to other deficiencies. But when phosphorus deficiency is discovered, it is too late to correct the crop. Some plants, such as corn, show unusual color changes when phosphorus deficiency occurs.

Deng Jun (Kevin) Wang, assistant professor of aquatic chemistry in the School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences at Auburn University's College of Agriculture, said: "Our research shows that despite the potential reduction in global risks for phosphorus pollution, the reduction in rice grain yield, without the use of Additional phosphorus fertilization to offset could be acute, especially in low-income countries under future carbon dioxide scenarios. Wang is a co-author of a paper recently published in the journal Nature Geoscience that examines the process of measuring phosphorus levels in plants in long-term experiments.

Wang further added: We investigated the measurement of phosphorus concentration in two long-term experiments (15 and 9 years) of free air carbon dioxide enrichment or FACE on rice grain. Although no change was observed in the first year of the experiments, at the end, the available phosphorus of the soil decreased by more than 20%, which was 26.9% and 21% for 15 and 9 years, respectively. The collected data were valuable and very compelling, as it is rare to find field data in such a large and long-term experiment as FACE with decades of monitoring history in the industry.

This is despite the fact that the total amount of phosphorus present in the highest level of the soil is low and this amount reaches about 0.6%. Meanwhile, the average amount of nitrogen in these conditions is 0.14% and the amount of potassium is 0.83%. The content of phosphorus in soils is very diverse, in the coastal plains of the Atlantic Ocean and its bays, which have sandy soil, the amount of P2O5 reaches less than 0.04%, and even in some soils, the amount of phosphorus reaches more than 0.3%. Among the factors that affect the amount of phosphorus in the soil, we can mention the type of raw material from which the soil was formed, the degree of soil aeration and erosion, weather conditions, crop harvest and soil fertility.

This research also shows that phosphorus reduction can be explained by the production of soil organic phosphorus that is not readily available by plants, as well as by increased phosphorus removal through crop harvesting. Our findings further indicate that increased plant phosphorus transfer through biological, biochemical, and chemical phosphorus under anthropogenic changes is not sufficient to compensate for the reduction of plant-available phosphorus under long-term exposure to high CO2, Wang said. This may not be a good sign for us due to the forecast of global warming with increasing levels of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere.

The size of global phosphorus resources has recently been a major concern of the world community. Among all the elements needed by living cells, the global amount of phosphorus is the lowest. A few years ago, it was predicted that at the current rate of phosphate ore mining, the marketable economic reserve would be exhausted in the next 60 to 100 years. Recent assessments suggest that without a change in demand, exploitable reserves may last 300 to 400 years. Such predictions highlight the need for effective use of phosphorus and its recycling in the cycle of supply and demand.