Festival season is in full flow, and like any self-respecting plant-soil biogeochemist attending a local music festival, I’m curious about how these outdoor events might modify important nutrient cycles.
With crowds gathering in fields, consuming lots of food and drink, then excreting these in, shall we say, not exactly ideal facilities, extra nutrients from urine and faeces could easily escape into the environment.
This human waste contains significant amounts of two macronutrients, nitrogen and phosphorus. Other human activities, including using fertilisers, overflows of sewage, and fossil fuel burning, also lead to large releases of nitrogen and phosphorus into soils, air and water causing ecological imbalances, water quality problems and biodiversity loss. Research suggests that humans have disturbed these nutrient cycles enough to threaten the long-term habitability of our planet.
