Disruption of the global nitrogen cycle: A grand challenge for the twenty-first century

Abstract

Disruption of the global nitrogen cycle by humans results primarily from activities associated with food and energy production. Since the middle of the twentieth century, human activities have more than doubled inputs of nitrogen to the Earth's ecosystems. This new nitrogen is in chemically and biologically active forms (reactive N) and moves through the environment causing an array of health and environmental problems. Research published in Ambio for the past three decades has been documenting this major global-scale problem and has catalyzed the formation of a science-led initiative, the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI), which has informed policies to manage the global nitrogen cycle. Currently, gaps and opportunities in nitrogen pollution policies still exist and require new interdisciplinary science to help to place the nitrogen management challenge in the context of the other environmental grand challenges of our time including climate change and biodiversity loss because their solutions will be interconnected.Keywords Eutrophication Á Global nitrogen cycle Á International Nitrogen Initiative Á Nitrogen management strategies Á Nitrogen pollution policies Á Reactive nitrogen Publisher's Note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Impact of Intrinsic Density Functional Theory Errors on the Predictive Power of Nitrogen Cycle Electrocatalysis Models

“…Oxidized nitrogen species can pollute both the atmosphere − and water bodies. − Their concentrations are worryingly increasing because of anthropogenic activities such as the combustion of fossil fuels and intensive agriculture. − An alternative to remediate their negative impact is to reduce them into unharmful molecular nitrogen (N 2 ) or valuable ammonia (NH 3 ), − thereby dynamizing the nitrogen cycle. In principle, electrocatalysis could be used as a green technology for these processes if the necessary energy input comes from renewable sources. , However, the design of active, selective, and stable catalysts for the reduction of nitrogen oxides is not trivial.…”

Spaceborne NO2 observations are sensitive to coal mining and processing in the largest coal basin of Russia

“…These first estimates of substantial tropospheric NO 2 increases over Kuzbass can encourage national and regional policy makers to formulate new pollution mitigation strategies to assess and to minimize the local population’s exposure to the adverse cardiovascular and respiratory effects of tropospheric NO 2 and also O 3 , as NO 2 is a precursor of O 3 . Moreover, elevated atmospheric NO 2 may cause indirect adverse environmental effects such as nitrogen enrichment of water bodies via deposition, which compromises the safety of drinking water as well 37 .…”

Life Cycle Assessment of Nitrogen Circular Economy-Based NOx Treatment Technology

“…All other nitrogen forms are referred to as reactive nitrogen (Nr), such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), ammonia (NH 3 ), nitrous oxide (N 2 O), nitrite (NO 2 − ), and nitrate (NO 3 − ). Humans are massively perturbing the global nitrogen cycle, leading to excess Nr in the environment [1][2][3][4]. As a key Nr species, NO x mainly derived from combustion processes results in acidification, eutrophication, photochemical smog, and so forth [5,6].…”

“…NH 3 is not only one of the most important traditional sources of fertilizers for agriculture, but is also emerging as a promising energy carrier which might play an important part in future energy scenarios [17,18]. For ReNOx, NH 3 was not used as a reducing agent, but as a product. This reveals the potential to remodel the nitrogen economy.…”