title: Managing urban nutrient biogeochemistry for sustainable urbanization.
abstract: Urban ecosystems are unique in the sense that human activities are the major drivers of biogeochemical processes. Along with the demographic movement into cities, nutrients flow towards the urban zone (nutrient urbanization), causing the degradation of environmental quality and ecosystem health. In this paper, we summarize the characteristics of nutrient cycling within the urban ecosystem compared to natural ecosystems. The dynamic process of nutrient urbanization is then explored taking Xiamen city, China, as an example to examine the influence of rapid urbanization on food sourced nitrogen and phosphorus metabolism. Subsequently, the concept of a nutrient footprint and calculation method is introduced from a lifecycle perspective. Finally, we propose three system approaches to mend the broken biogeochemical cycling. Our study will contribute to a holistic solution which achieves synergies between environmental quality and food security, by integrating technologies for nutrient recovery and waste reduction.
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China; Xiamen Key Lab of Urban Metabolism, Xiamen 361021, China. Electronic address: tlin@iue.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China; Xiamen Key Lab of Urban Metabolism, Xiamen 361021, China. Electronic address: Vee@iue.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gibson
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China; Xiamen Key Lab of Urban Metabolism, Xiamen 361021, China. Electronic address: shcui@iue.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Shenghui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China; Xiamen Key Lab of Urban Metabolism, Xiamen 361021, China. Electronic address: cpyu@iue.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Chang-Ping
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China; Xiamen Key Lab of Urban Metabolism, Xiamen 361021, China. Electronic address: shchen@iue.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Shaohua
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China; Xiamen Key Lab of Urban Metabolism, Xiamen 361021, China. Electronic address: zlye@iue.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Zhilong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China; Xiamen Key Lab of Urban Metabolism, Xiamen 361021, China. Electronic address: ygzhu@rcees.ac.cn.
authors.forename: Yong-Guan
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: Zhu
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D002947:Cities; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000379:methods*; D055669:Ecological and Environmental Phenomena; D017753:Ecosystem; D004777:Environment; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D006802:Human Activities; D006801:Humans; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000032:analysis*; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000032:analysis*; D014507:Urbanization / Q000639:trends*
chemical_list: D010758:Phosphorus; D009584:Nitrogen
keywords: Biogeochemistry; Nitrogen; Phosphorus; Sustainable urbanization; Urban metabolism