Where did all the nitrogen go? Fate of nitrogen inputs to large watersheds in the northeastern U.S.A.

Breemen, N. van; Boyer, E. W.; Goodale, Christine L.; Seitzinger, Sybil P.; Lajtha, Kate; Mayer, B.; Dam, D. van; Howarth, Robert W.; Nadelhoffer, Knute J.; Eve, Marlen; Billen, Gilles

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-3405-9_8

Cited by 133 publications

(220 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Due to year-to-year N removals via riverine export, denitrification, biomass uptake/storage, and wood product export (Van Breemen et al 2002), the remaining NANI from the previous years in the watershed (e.g., soils, aquifers, and sediments) decreases over time. Therefore, the historical NANI t−i residual coefficient ρ t−i was assumed as a power decay function of relevant years and explanatory variables:…”

Section: Development Of the Lagged Variable Model For Riverine Tn Exportmentioning

confidence: 99%

A lagged variable model for characterizing temporally dynamic export of legacy anthropogenic nitrogen from watersheds to rivers

Chen

Guo

et al. 2015

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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Legacy nitrogen (N) sources originating from anthropogenic N inputs (NANI) may be a major cause of increasing riverine N exports in many regions, despite a significant decline in NANI. However, little quantitative knowledge exists concerning the lag effect of NANI on riverine N export. As a result, the N leaching lag effect is not well represented in most current watershed models. This study developed a lagged variable model (LVM) to address temporally dynamic export of watershed NANI to rivers. Employing a Koyck transformation approach used in economic analyses, the LVM expresses the indefinite number of lag terms from previous years' NANI with a lag term that incorporates the previous year's riverine N flux, enabling us to inversely calibrate model parameters from measurable variables using Bayesian statistics. Applying the LVM to the upper Jiaojiang watershed in eastern China for 1980-2010 indicated that~97 % of riverine export of annual NANI occurred in the current year and succeeding 10 years (~11 years lag time) and~72 % of annual riverine N flux was derived from previous years' NANI. Existing NANI over the 1993-2010 period would have required a 22 % reduction to attain the target TN level (1.0 mg N L −1 ), guiding watershed N source controls considering the lag effect. The LVM was developed with parsimony of model structure and parameters (only four parameters in this study); thus, it is easy to develop and apply in other watersheds. The LVM provides a simple and effective tool for quantifying the lag effect of anthropogenic N input on riverine export in support of efficient development and evaluation of watershed N control strategies.

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Section: Development Of the Lagged Variable Model For Riverine Tn Exportmentioning

confidence: 99%

A lagged variable model for characterizing temporally dynamic export of legacy anthropogenic nitrogen from watersheds to rivers

Chen

Guo

et al. 2015

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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“…Many studies have found that a very high percentage (>90%) of the N deposited on terrestrial ecosystems is retained, i.e., not exported from the ecosystem via hydrologic pathways , van Breemen et al 2002. The specifics of this vast retention, which consists of N storage in soils and vegetation and gaseous losses, are not well characterized.…”

Section: N Gas Fluxes and Atmospheric Deposition -Some Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

Landscape and Regional Scale Studies of Nitrogen Gas Fluxes

Groffman

Venterea

Verchot

et al. 2006

Scaling and Uncertainty Analysis in Ecology

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“…To understand nitrogen use efficiency and assess the environmental risk of fertilizer N application, N budgets have been estimated in many countries (Breemen et al, 2002;Liu et al, 2008;Atsushi et al, 2009) at various scales, including by country, watershed, region, and worldwide Junko, 2012). These estimates have contributed to agricultural N management to minimize environmental degradation while maintaining high crop yields (Liu and Chen, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in nitrogen budget and potential risk to the environment over 20years (1990–2010) in the agroecosystems of the Haihe Basin, China

Zheng

Ying-xia

et al. 2015

Journal of Environmental Sciences

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The nitrogen balance can serve as an indicator of the risk to the environment of nitrogen loss from agricultural land. To investigate the temporal and spatial changes in agricultural nitrogen application and its potential threat to the environment of the Haihe Basin in China, we used a database of county-level agricultural statistics to calculate agricultural nitrogen input, output, surplus intensity, and use efficiency. Chemical fertilizer nitrogen input increased by 51.7% from partly due to fertilizer composition and type improvement. This level indicates that more than half of nitrogen inputs are lost in agroecosystems. Our results suggest that although the improvement in fertilizer composition and types has partially offset the decrease in nitrogen use efficiency, the environmental risk has still increased gradually over the past 20 years, along with the increase in crop yields and nitrogen application. It is important to achieve a better nitrogen balance through more effective management to significantly reduce the environmental risk, decrease nitrogen surplus intensity, and increase nitrogen use efficiency without sacrificing crop yields.

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Where did all the nitrogen go? Fate of nitrogen inputs to large watersheds in the northeastern U.S.A.

Cited by 133 publications

References 29 publications

A lagged variable model for characterizing temporally dynamic export of legacy anthropogenic nitrogen from watersheds to rivers

A lagged variable model for characterizing temporally dynamic export of legacy anthropogenic nitrogen from watersheds to rivers

Landscape and Regional Scale Studies of Nitrogen Gas Fluxes

Changes in nitrogen budget and potential risk to the environment over 20years (1990–2010) in the agroecosystems of the Haihe Basin, China

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