Nitrogen flows from European regional watersheds to coastal marine waters

Billen, Gilles; Silvestre, Marie; Grizzetti, Bruna; Leip, Adrian; Bouraoui, F.; Behrendt, Horst; Garnier, Josette; Humborg, Christoph; Smedberg, Erik; Johnes, Penny J; Kaste, Øyvind; Curtis, Chris; Lepistö, Ahti; Kortelainen, Pirkko; Ganeshram, Raja S.; Beusen, Arthur; Voß, Maren

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511976988.016

Cited by 74 publications

(77 citation statements)

References 108 publications

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“…The stream export of the Grassland catchment represented a relatively large budget term compared with the other terms. By comparison with other European regional catchment budgets reported by Billen et al (2011), the retention of N was low (Sect. 3.5).…”

Section: Total N Budgets For the Study Catchmentsmentioning

confidence: 61%

“…Recently, Dinsmore et al (2010) showed the DOC downstream flux to be a significant loss within the C budget of the Moorland catchment, although the moorland was still found to act as a strong C sink, mainly due to a large C uptake from the atmosphere. However, in the past, the same moorland has also been found to be either C neutral or a small C source (Billett et al, 2004). The differing C balances reflect large interannual variability in flux terms, particularly C uptake from the atmosphere, which in turn is influenced by the annual fluctuations in weather.…”

Section: Total N Budgets For the Study Catchmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Estimation of nitrogen budgets for contrasting catchments at the landscape scale

et al. 2013

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Abstract.A comprehensive assessment of nitrogen (N) flows at the landscape scale is fundamental to understand spatial interactions in the N cascade and to inform the development of locally optimised N management strategies. To explore these interactions, complete N budgets were estimated for two contrasting hydrological catchments (dominated by agricultural grassland vs. semi-natural peat-dominated moorland), forming part of an intensively studied landscape in southern Scotland. Local scale atmospheric dispersion modelling and detailed farm and field inventories provided high resolution estimations of input fluxes. Direct agricultural inputs (i.e. grazing excreta, N 2 fixation, organic and synthetic fertiliser) accounted for most of the catchment N inputs, representing 82 % in the grassland and 62 % in the moorland catchment, while atmospheric deposition made a significant contribution, particularly in the moorland catchment, contributing 38 % of the N inputs. The estimated catchment N budgets highlighted areas of key uncertainty, particularly N 2 exchange and stream N export. The resulting N balances suggest that the study catchments have a limited capacity to store N within soils, vegetation and groundwater. The "catchment N retention", i.e. the amount of N which is either stored within the catchment or lost through atmospheric emissions, was estimated to be 13 % of the net anthropogenic input in the moorland and 61 % in the grassland catchment. These values contrast with regional scale estimates: Catchment retentions of net anthropogenic input estimated within Europe at the regional scale range from 50 % to 90 %, with an average of 82 % . This study emphasises the need for detailed budget analyses to identify the N status of European landscapes.

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Section: Total N Budgets For the Study Catchmentsmentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Total N Budgets For the Study Catchmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of nitrogen budgets for contrasting catchments at the landscape scale

et al. 2013

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“…The nutrient accounting approach can be used to estimate nutrient retention, which has been reported to vary across individual watersheds, regions, and continents (Garnier et al 2015). Its variation has been shown to be strongly correlated with climatic and hydrologic conditions; for example, in Europe the fraction of NANI exported as riverine fluxes is lowest in Mediterranean watersheds, highest in Nordic watersheds, and in-between in temperate watersheds (Romero et al 2016;Billen et al 2011). Figure 4a compares the relationships between NANI and TN flux for the 5-year averages centered on 2000 (black symbols) and 2010 (blue symbols) based on NUTS2/oblast-level data and PLC5.5 riverine and coastal TN estimates aggregated to the drainage area of the Baltic basins; it is evident that similar linear relationships apply between NANI and TN fluxes across watersheds for both periods (the slopes and intercepts are not significantly different from each other).…”

Section: Spatial Variation Of Nani Napi and Their Components In 2010mentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in NANI and NAPI accounting for the Baltic drainage basin: spatial and temporal trends and relationships to watershed TN and TP fluxes

et al. 2017

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In order to assess the progress toward eutrophication management goals, it is important to understand trends in land-based nutrient use. Here we present net anthropogenic nitrogen and phosphorus inputs (NANI and NAPI, respectively) for 2000 and 2010 for the Baltic Sea watershed. Overall, across the entire Baltic, between the 5-year periods centered on 2000 and 2010, NANI and NAPI decreased modestly by -6 and -4%, respectively, but with substantial regional variation, including major increases in the Gulf of Riga drainage basin (?19 and ?58%, respectively) and decreases in the Danish Straits drainage basin (-25 and -40% respectively). The changes were due primarily to changes in mineral fertilizer use. Mineral fertilizers dominated inputs, at 57% of both NANI and NAPI in 2000, increasing to 68 and 70%, respectively, by 2010. Net food and feed imports declined over that period, corresponding to increased crop production; either fewer imports of food and feedstocks were required to feed humans and livestock, or more of these commodities were exported. A strong linear relationship exists between regional net nutrient inputs and riverine nutrient fluxes for both periods. About 17% of NANI and 4.7% of NAPI were exported to the sea in 2000; these relationships did not significantly differ from those for 2010. Changes in NANI from 2000 to 2010 across basins were directly proportional rather than linearly related to changes in total N (TN) fluxes to the sea (i.e., -017-0330-0 no change in NANI suggests no change in TN flux). Similarly, for all basins except those draining to the Baltic Proper, changes in NAPI were proportional to changes in total P (TP) fluxes. The Danish Straits decreased most between 2000 and 2010, where NANI and NAPI declined by 25 and 40%, respectively, and corresponding fluxes of TN and TP declined 31 and 18%, respectively. For the Baltic Proper, NAPI was relatively unchanged between 2000 and 2010, while riverine TP fluxes decreased 25%, due possibly to lagged effects of fertilizer reduction resulting from socio-political changes in the early 1990s or improvements in sewage treatment capabilities. For most regions, further reductions in NANI and NAPI could be achieved by more efficient production and greater substitution of manure for imported mineral fertilizers.123 Biogeochemistry (2017) 133:245-261 DOI 10.1007/s10533

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“…NANI has been applied in many watersheds across the US (Howarth et al, 2006;Schaefer et al, 2009), Europe (Billen et al, 2011a;Hägg et al, 2012;Hong et al, 2012) and Asia (Hayakawa et al, 2009;Han et al, 2014), and some adjustments were made according to data availability or new concepts (Hong et al, 2013). In this study, the calculation was based on the particular NANI approach presented by Howarth et al (2006) with some adjustments as described below.…”

Section: Net Anthropogenic Nitrogen Inputs (Nani) Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Catchments in the central city (catchments 14, 4, 8, 5, 12, and 15), are the largest N input areas. Compared to other watersheds over the world, NANI in the Lake Dianchi basin is high, i.e., in the northeastern US (560 to 4500 kg N km −2 yr −1 ) (Howarth et al, 2006), the southeastern US (2700 to 4900 kg N km −2 yr −1 ) (Schaefer and Alber, 2007), Baltic Sea catchments (300 to 8800 kg N km −2 yr −1 ), and Europe generally (less than 1000 to over 20 000 kg N km −2 yr −1 ) (Billen et al, 2011b). Such a high value of an N input is likely responsible for the serious aquatic N pollution in this region. )…”

Section: Nani Estimates In the Lake Dianchi Basin Based On The Area-wmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimating net anthropogenic nitrogen inputs (NANI) in the Lake Dianchi basin of China

et al. 2014

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Abstract. Net anthropogenic nitrogen inputs (NANI) with components of atmospheric N deposition, synthetic N fertilizer, agricultural N fixation and N in net food and feed imports from 15 catchments in the Lake Dianchi basin were determined over an 11-year period (2000-2010). The 15 catchments range in size from 44 km 2 to 316 km 2 with an average of 175 km 2 . To reduce uncertainty from scale change methodology, results from data extraction by area-weighting and land use-weighting methods were compared. Results show that the methodology for extrapolating data from the county scale to watersheds has a great influence on NANI computation for catchments in the Lake Dianchi basin, and that estimates of NANI between the two methods have an average difference of 30 % on a catchment basis, while a smaller difference (15 %) was observed on the whole Lake Dianchi basin basis. The riverine N export has a stronger linear relationship with NANI computed by the land useweighting method, which we believe is more reliable. Overall, nitrogen inputs assessed by the NANI approach for the Lake Dianchi basin are 9900 kg N km −2 yr −1 , ranging from 6600 to 28 000 kg N km −2 yr −1 among the 15 catchments. Synthetic N fertilizer is the largest component of NANI in most subwatersheds. On average, riverine flux of nitrogen in catchments of the Lake Dianchi basin averages 83 % of NANI, far higher than generally observed in North America and Europe. Saturated N sinks and a limited capacity for denitrification in rivers may be responsible for this high percentage of riverine N export. Overall, the NANI methodology should be applicable in small watersheds when sufficiently detailed data are available to estimate its components.

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Nitrogen flows from European regional watersheds to coastal marine waters

Cited by 74 publications

References 108 publications

Estimation of nitrogen budgets for contrasting catchments at the landscape scale

Estimation of nitrogen budgets for contrasting catchments at the landscape scale

Advances in NANI and NAPI accounting for the Baltic drainage basin: spatial and temporal trends and relationships to watershed TN and TP fluxes

Estimating net anthropogenic nitrogen inputs (NANI) in the Lake Dianchi basin of China

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