Balancing agriculture and environment: Andrew Sharpley’s nutrient, soil and water management legacy

Authors: FLATEN, DON - University Of Manitoba; Kleinman, Peter; OSMOND, DEANNA - North Carolina State University

Submitted to: Journal of Environmental Quality
Publication Type: Review Article
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/18/2024
Publication Date: 2/10/2024
Citation: Flaten, D.N., Kleinman, P.J., Osmond, D. 2024. Balancing agriculture and environment: Andrew Sharpley’s nutrient, soil and water management legacy. Journal of Environmental Quality. https://doi.org/10.1002/jeq2.20547.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/jeq2.20547

Interpretive Summary: Managing agricultural phosphorus (P) to balance food security and water quality priorities is a massive challenge fraught with uncertainty and competing interests. Andrew Sharpley, a prominent USDA-ARS scientist for many years, served as a unique leader over P research and management efforts. This review of Sharpley's contributions to the science and management of soils and water reveals the enormous impact he had in promoting agricultural P stewardship.

Technical Abstract: Managing agricultural phosphorus (P) to balance food security and water quality priorities is a massive challenge fraught with uncertainty and competing interests. Throughout his career, Andrew Sharpley addressed this challenge by building our understanding of the fundamental principles and processes that control P behavior in agricultural land, developing tools to assess P losses, and then evaluating and refining nutrient, soil, and water beneficial management practices (BMPs). Together with an exceptionally large and diverse group of collaborators, Sharpley developed, tested, refined, calibrated, and validated management practices and risk assessment tools to develop site-specific recommendations for the right practices, in the right places, at the right times. This approach has resonated globally, with the strategic use of BMPs in “critical source areas” widely implemented in an effort to improve the effectiveness of BMPs while reducing implementation costs. Additional contributions to nutrient management include determining environmental thresholds for soil test P and measuring the risk of P loss from different sources of P (e.g., various manures and commercial fertilizers). Sharpley’s work was also distinctly realistic, ensuring that strategies for mitigating P loss were critically evaluated so that not only were the benefits highlighted, but also that trade-offs were measured. Nowhere is this better illustrated than with trade-offs in particulate P loss and dissolved P loss with conservation tillage. Sharpley's enormous contributions to our knowledge of agricultural P stewardship, as well as his model of collaborative leadership, will help the world to maintain agricultural productivity and protect water quality for many years to come.