How your festival wee could disrupt soil health and water quality

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.