Contribution of atmospheric deposition to soil provisioning ecosystem services in the contiguous United States: Part 2. Magnesium

Garth Groshans, Elena Mikhailova, Christopher Post, Mark Schlautman, Michael Cope, Lisha Zhang

Magnesium (Mg2+) deficiency commonly occurs in more than half of the global population based on dietary reference intakes set by the United States and Canada.  Atmospheric deposition provides provisioning ecosystem service value to society; however, spatial distribution of atmospheric Mg2+ deposition varies in the United States.  This study ranked the provisioning ecosystem services value of atmospheric Mg2+ deposition in the United States by soil order, state, and region.  The total value of provisioning ecosystem services contributed from atmospheric Mg2+ deposition was 47M (i.g., 47 million U.S. dollars) based on a national average price (2014) of $12.90 per U.S. ton of agricultural dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2).  Regions with the highest ranked for total value of Mg2+ deposition were: 1) South Central, 2) West, and 3) Southeast, while the highest ranked regions based on area-normalized values were: 1) South Central, 2) Southeast, and 3) East.  The highest ranked states for total value of Mg2+ deposition were: 1) Texas, 2) Florida, and 3) California, while the highest ranked states based on area-normalized values were: 1) Florida, 2) Louisiana, and 3) Texas. The results of this study show the importance of assessing atmospherically deposited Mg2+ ions for the ecosystem services framework.  The potential impacts on society from this research including adding atmospheric Mg2+ deposition to the ecosystem services framework and increasing the betterment of health and well-being for the global population.

Keywords: Agriculture, Dolomite,  Fertility, Fertilization, Food security, Land use, Magnesium, Market failure, Soil inorganic carbon (SIC), STATSGO

Proscience vol. 5

Pp 52-57

DOI:10.14644/dust.2018.009