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Adsorption–microbial integration pioneers sustainable phosphorus cycle

Nature Water volume 4, pages 169–182 (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

Escalating phosphorus (P) pollution and depleting P reserves demand sustainable P control strategies. Here we developed a microbially enhanced La–Zr-loaded basalt (MLZB) system integrating physicochemical adsorption with microbial metabolism for P removal and recovery. Adsorption creates a P-enriched microenvironment that fosters P-solubilizing bacteria, which secrete organic acids to release adsorbed P and regenerate adsorption sites. These bacteria mediate P storage and re-release via polyphosphate metabolism, making P available to eukaryotes. Ultimately, biodiverse microbial communities harbouring key P-metabolic genes were established within MLZB. Over a 1-year continuous treatment of real agricultural non-point source polluted water, this system maintained P removal efficiencies exceeding 90.0%, with its effluent consistently meeting the discharge standard of 0.2 mg l−1. The basalt matrix was regenerated, whereas P-containing products were recovered through incineration. MLZB offers an economically superior alternative to traditional chemicals by serving as an effective P cycle medium. It markedly reduces ecological impacts and promotes the development of circular economy.

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Fig. 1: P production, use and environmental fate.
Fig. 2: PO43− removal by microbial-enhanced La–Zr-coated basalt adsorption system.
Fig. 3: Investigating microbial dynamics and synergy in PO43−-P uptake.
Fig. 4: Unravelling the genetic and metabolic frameworks of MLZB.
Fig. 5: Evaluation of material application potential.
Fig. 6: Environmental impact assessment of material application.

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Data availability

The raw sequence data reported in this Article have been uploaded to the NCBI nr database under accession number PRJNA1330798. All data generated for this study are available within this Article and its Supplementary Information. The source experimental data are available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.30868796 (ref. 51).

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 52221004 to G.Z. and grant no. 22206028 to W.-J.F.) and Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (grant no. ZR2021MD094 to Y.S.N.). We thank X. L. Xie from Materials Academy, JITRI, Suzhou for providing analysis of the nano-CT imaging results. We thank Q. Zhou from the Beijing Institute of Technology for the discussion with the results of theLCA analysis.

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  1. These authors contributed equally: Tianming Wu, Wen-Jie Fu, Zheng Yan.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biomedical Engineering, College of Life Sciences, Qingdao University, Qingdao, China

    Tianming Wu, Zhe Zhao, Lu Wang, Lei Yan, Kaiqing Tong & Yusheng Niu

  2. Center for Water and Ecology, State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Tianming Wu, Binggong Li & Gong Zhang

  3. College of Environment and Resources, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin, China

    Wen-Jie Fu

  4. Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences, Beijing, China

    Zheng Yan

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Contributions

G.Z. and Y.S.N. directed the project and designed the experiments. T.M.W. carried out the synthesis of the LZB materials and conducted PO43−-P removal experiments at both laboratory and beach scales. B.G.L. and T.M.W. carried out and analysed the results of XPS, nano-CT and FTIR experiments. Y.S.N., Z.Z, L.W., L.Y., K.Q.T. and T.M.W. analysed the microbial community within MLZB. G.Z. and W.-J.F. carried out and analysed the theoretical calculations. G.Z. and B.G.L. performed LCA analysis. T.M.W., W.-J.F., Z.Y., Y.S.N. and G.Z. wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Gong Zhang or Yusheng Niu.

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Nature Water thanks Ramesh Goel, Di Wu and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information (download PDF )

Supplementary Figs. 1–36 and Tables 1–8.

Reporting Summary (download PDF )

Supplementary Data 1 (download XLSX )

The detailed data on phosphate rock production.

Supplementary Data 2 (download XLSX )

The functional genes and their corresponding enzymes.

Supplementary Data 3 (download XLSX )

The detected VFAs and PHB.

Supplementary Data 4 (download XLSX )

The detailed P discharge data by country.

Supplementary Data 5 (download XLSX )

The primers used for the qPCR validation of Paraburkholderia P-solubilizing genes.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 2 (download XLSX )

Source data underlying Fig. 2, including all raw values used to generate the plots.

Source Data Fig. 3 (download XLSX )

Source data underlying Fig. 3, including all raw values used to generate the plots.

Source Data Fig. 4 (download XLSX )

Source data underlying Fig. 4, including all raw values used to generate the plots.

Source Data Fig. 5 (download XLSX )

Source data underlying Fig. 5, including all raw values used to generate the plots.

Source Data Fig. 6 (download XLSX )

Source data underlying Fig. 6, including all raw values used to generate the plots.

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Wu, T., Fu, WJ., Yan, Z. et al. Adsorption–microbial integration pioneers sustainable phosphorus cycle. Nat Water 4, 169–182 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-025-00582-w

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