Assessment of nitrogen fluxes to air and water from site scale to continental scale: An overview
article
The nitrogen (N) cycle is of fundamental importance in human health issues, ecosystem functioning and global change. It provides a key control of the global carbon cycle through effects on primary production and decomposition; it is a major determinant of terres trial and aquatic biodiversity; it affects particle and other chemical production in the atmosphere; and it has major impacts on green house gas fluxes and stratospheric ozone depletion (e.g. Galloway et al., 2003; Sutton et al., 2011a,b). It is therefore a matter of great concern that global cycling of reactive nitrogen (Nr) is estimated to have more than doubled (Vitousek et al., 1997; Galloway et al., 2004; Sutton et al., 2011a,b), whereas, by comparison, the C cycle is less than 10% perturbed by human activities (IPCC, 2001). Despite this concern, much less effort has been given to quantifying the N cycle than to the C cycle. Recently, a European Nitrogen Assessment (ENA), has been published, representing the culmination of a five year effort to better understand and manage nitrogen in the envi ronment, providing the first continental scale assessment linking the benefits of nitrogen with the multiple environmental threats (Sutton et al., 2011a,b,c). Its scope extends from improving process understanding, to upscaling in space and time, consideration of the priority threats, and, finally, assessment of costs, future policy options and communication strategies.
TNO Identifier
996704
ISSN
02697491
Source
Environmental Pollution, 159(11), pp. 1-6.
Publisher
Elsevier Ltd
Pages
1-6
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