Benefits of Biosolids to Soil Quality and Fertility

Chambers, B. J.; Nicholson, F. A.; Aitken, M. N.; Cartmell, Elise; Rowlands, Christopher

doi:10.1111/j.1747-6593.2003.tb00455.x

Cited by 30 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…Increasing rate of sewage sludge for growing wheat decreased the bulk density and increased total porosity. In several other studies on agricultural use of amendments consistently showed decrease in the bulk density and penetration resistance with increasing rates of amendment [37][38][39][40]. Reported decreases in bulk density are attributed to increase in aggregate stability and total porosity [37].…”

Section: Impact On Soil Physical Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 88%

Sewage Sludge: An Important Biological Resource for Sustainable Agriculture and Its Environmental Implications

Khalid¹,

Khan²,

Ghulam³

et al. 2012

AJPS

169

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Intensive farming generally needs large addition of organic matter to maintain fertility and enhance crop yields. Sewage sludge/biosolids are by-products of municipal and industrial wastewater treatment and a rich source of organic nutrients. Sewage sludge having high content of organic matter, macro- and micro-nutrients, can be used as fertilizer/soil conditioner for food, vegetable crop, horticultural plants and pasture, which in most cases can be beneficially recycled. In the past sewage sludge was regarded as a waste product due to expected high level of contaminants such as pathogens, pollutants and synthetic materials discharged in sewer from homes and industries, which were often incinerated, dumped in occasion or land fill. As a result of rapidly increasing population, urbanization and industrialization, wastewater production and sewage sludge generation have increased manifold. Due to high cost of mineral fertilizers and escalating trends in their prices, there is an increasing trend of using sewage sludge in agriculture, especially under intensive cropping in arid and semi arid regions of the country. Therefore, application of sewage sludge to agricultural soils may be sustainable and economical due to nutrient cycling and disposal of sewage sludge. However, there may be a risk in use of sewage sludge due to potentially harmful contents present in the sludge such as heavy metals and pathogens. This paper, therefore, presents a review on various aspects of sewage sludge used in agriculture

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Section: Impact On Soil Physical Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 88%

Sewage Sludge: An Important Biological Resource for Sustainable Agriculture and Its Environmental Implications

Khalid¹,

Khan²,

Ghulam³

et al. 2012

AJPS

169

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Yet, the effects of widespread substitutions of mineral P fertilizers for recycled organic P resources on agricultural provisioning and water quality services are uncertain. At the plant-soil scale, recycling of manure to croplands can improve nutrient availability, water-holding capacity, and soil structure (Chambers et al 2003, Li et al 2011a, potentially altering farmland water discharge pathways and volumes. Use of organic amendments, along with method of application and other management practices, can increase soil C storage in agricultural lands (Fornara et al 2016), representing a co-benefit of P stewardship that favors manure amendments over mineral fertilizers.…”

Section: Boxmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guiding phosphorus stewardship for multiple ecosystem services

MacDonald

Jarvie

Withers

et al. 2016

Ecosyst Health Sustain

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The essential role of phosphorus (P) for agriculture and its impact on water quality has received decades of research attention. However, the benefits of sustainable P use and management for society due to its downstream impacts on multiple ecosystem services are rarely acknowledged. We propose a conceptual framework—the “phosphorus‐ecosystem services cascade” (PESC)—to integrate the key ecosystem processes and functions that moderate the relationship between P released to the environment from human actions and ecosystem services at distinct spatial and temporal scales. Indirect pathways in the cascade via soil and aquatic processes link anthropogenic P to biodiversity and multiple services, including recreation, drinking water provision, and fisheries. As anthropogenic P cascades through catchments, it often shifts from a subsidy to a stressor of ecosystem services. Phosphorus stewardship can have emergent ecosystem service co‐benefits due to synergies with other societal or management goals (e.g., recycling of livestock manures and organic wastes could impact soil carbon storage). Applying the PESC framework, we identify key research priorities to align P stewardship with the management of multiple ecosystem services, such as incorporating additional services into agri‐environmental P indices, assessing how widespread recycling of organic P sources could differentially impact agricultural yields and water quality, and accounting for shifting baselines in P stewardship due to climate change. Ultimately, P impacts depend on site‐specific agricultural and biogeophysical contexts, so greater precision in targeting stewardship strategies to specific locations would help to optimize for ecosystem services and to more effectively internalize the downstream costs of farm nutrient management.

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“…The disposal route to farmland is the least expensive available option (Antille 2011(Antille , based on 2007, and it is widely accepted in Europe that recycling of organic materials, including biosolids, to land is the best practicable environmental practice (Edge 1999). Recycling aims to complete the natural nutrients and carbon cycles (Chambers et al 2003;Powlson et al 2012) while it mitigates the demand for finite resources (Weikard and Seyhan 2009;Goss, Tubeileh, and Goorahoo 2013). Meeting recycling targets in the longer term will require that wastewater operators are committed to improving the quality (physical and chemical properties) of biosolids to: (1) reduce environmental concerns, and (2) increase their fertilizer value and acceptability by farmers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%