School of Resources and Environment Publishes Key Findings in PNAS: Offering a New Pathway for Sustainable Utilization of Global Phosphorus

Recently, a research team led by Nanchang University as the first corresponding institution—comprising the School of Resources and Environment, the Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Environment and Resource Utilization (Ministry of Education), the Engineering Research Center of Watershed Carbon Neutralization (Ministry of Education), and the Jiangxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Ecological Hydrological Monitoring and Research in Poyang Lake Basin—has completed a study entitled Future strategies for phosphorus sustainability amid worsening global cycle imbalances (https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2512673123). Dr. Wei Liu is the first author, and Prof. Xianchuan Xie is the corresponding author. The work was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), a top-tier international multidisciplinary journal, demonstrating Nanchang University’s significant academic influence in this field.

This study addresses the trilemma facing global phosphorus: resource depletion, food security, and aquatic environmental health. It establishes a universal framework centered on a full life-cycle phosphorus flow model, incorporating international trade, phosphorus footprints, and scenario analysis to assess global anthropogenic phosphorus flow patterns and explore pathways and potentials for sustainable phosphorus utilization. The research clarifies phosphorus flow characteristics and imbalance patterns across the entire chain, laying a foundation for formulating and evaluating sustainable phosphorus strategies. It also provides critical insights into established and emerging phosphorus management technologies and their synergies. The study highlights that shifts in the global anthropogenic phosphorus cycle require active, country-specific and differentiated sustainable management strategies to tackle these challenges.

This achievement marks another major breakthrough for the School of Resources and Environment in water pollution prevention and control. It has received widespread coverage in German and American media, reflecting strong societal impact and international attention. It also showcases Nanchang University’s remarkable progress in building innovative research teams, enhancing research capacity, and expanding global vision, providing strong support for the university’s continued high-level research in related fields. The school will continue to align with national goals for ecological civilization and the “dual carbon” strategy, focusing on watershed environmental processes, resource recycling, and pollution control, striving to produce more original findings with international impact.

About the Authors

First Author: Wei Liu

Ph.D. candidate (2023), School of Resources and Environment, Nanchang University; Joint Ph.D. student, Faculty of Geology, Saint Petersburg State University. His research focuses on biogeochemical cycling of phosphorus in lakes, watershed material flow analysis, and large-scale geospatial machine learning for pollutant prediction. He has published 13 SCI papers (7 in Q1 journals) as first/corresponding author in journals including PNAS and Water Research. He holds 2 invention patents and is an associate editor of a university textbook. He was selected into the Young Talent Support Program (Doctoral Program) of the China Association for Science and Technology (2024) and leads projects including the Jiangxi Provincial Graduate Innovation Program (2024) and the Key Project for Graduate Students of Jiangxi Province (2025).

Corresponding Author: Xianchuan Xie

Professor and Ph.D. supervisor, Nanchang University; Deputy Director of the Key Laboratory of Poyang Lake Environment and Resource Utilization (Ministry of Education). He has long been engaged in research on watershed environmental governance and ecological risk control.

Article Link: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2512673123