nutrientwasting
Nutrientwasting refers to the loss or underutilization of essential nutrients—such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—through biological inefficiency, excretion, leaching, volatilization, or other processes that prevent these nutrients from being incorporated into growth, tissue synthesis, or productive output. The concept is used in discussions of nutrient management, ecological stoichiometry, and metabolic ecology, and it highlights the gap between nutrient inputs and their effective use by organisms or systems.
In biological systems, nutrient wastage can arise from metabolic inefficiencies, mismatches between dietary supply and an
Measurement and management of nutrientwasting focus on nutrient use efficiency (NUE), which compares nutrient inputs to