Lyon, C, Jacobs, B, Martin-Ortega, J orcid.org/0000-0003-0002-6772 et al. (6 more authors) (2022) Exploring adaptive capacity to phosphorus challenges through two United Kingdom river catchments. Environmental Science and Policy, 136. pp. 225-236. ISSN 1462-9011
Abstract
Phosphorus (P) is a critical natural resource for food production, but one that is subject to global supply vulnerabilities. P is also responsible for endemic eutrophication in waterbodies due to poor stewardship in the food chain. Catchments are natural social-ecologically bounded systems for P use in agriculture and water management. Stakeholders, such as farmers, water and sewerage service companies, local authorities, and environmental organisations mediate catchment adaptive capacity to P supply risks and P pollution in waterbodies. Adaptive capacity at this level has been insufficiently explored in addressing the P challenge, yet is essential to it. We address this gap by exploring through a qualitative study of stakeholders in two United Kingdom catchments. Our results suggest that the awareness and relevance of P-supply challenges is low in catchments, but the problem of waterbody vulnerability to excess P is of greater concern. Our findings highlight the roles in adaptive capacity of entrenched practices; knowledge and training activities and organisations; stakeholder cooperation and synergy; funding, infrastructure, and technology; the governance environment; and time needed to draw down P. We find that farmers and water companies are especially important to adaptive capacity as they directly interact with P flows. We therefore suggest that catchment adaptive capacity would be significantly improved through a well-supported, and expanded package of existing efforts such as providing scientific evidence of catchment P dynamics; training; payments; more empowered local governance. This effort would support catchment stakeholders to adopt effective P-stewardship practices within a multi-decade integrated catchment management strategy.
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Author(s). This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. | ||||
Keywords: | Phosphorus, Adaptive capacity, Catchments, Stakeholders, Agriculture, Water | ||||
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Institution: | The University of Leeds | ||||
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Sustainability Research Institute (SRI) (Leeds) | ||||
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Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications | ||||
Date Deposited: | 06 Jun 2022 09:24 | ||||
Last Modified: | 30 May 2023 22:38 | ||||
Status: | Published | ||||
Publisher: | Elsevier | ||||
Identification Number: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2022.06.001 |
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