Phosphorus in water: A review on the speciation analysis and species specific removal strategies

Elemental phosphorus (P) is key to all life forms on earth. Efficient P management and control in natural environments especially in water bodies is of paramount importance to the balance and stability of the ecosystem on both local and global scales. In the past decades, there have been numerous efforts devoted to the P analysis as well as on its efficient removal in water. However, natural occurrence of P species is in diverse forms with different properties, some even yet to be known, posing challenges to current analytic methods and removal technologies. In this review, we make an attempt to clarify the current advances on the analysis of different P species in water as well as the corresponding removal strategies. We hope to provide a new perspective for P management purpose, i.e., linking the P speciation analysis with the removal strategies, and offer a complementary guidance for researchers that are normally specialized in either field. Moreover, we envision future directions in both fields, and address the need for the development of P species-orientated removal strategies with high efficiency and selectivity based on advanced analytic technologies.