Costs and benefits of synthetic nitrogen for global cereal production in 2015 and in 2050 under contrasting scenarios
Cereals are the most important global staple crop and use more than half of global cropland and synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizer. While this synthetic N may feed half of the current global population…
Multimodel and Multiconstituent Scenario Construction for Future Water Quality
Freshwater pollution is, together with climate change, one of today’s most severe and pervasive threats to the global environment. Comprehensive and spatially explicit scenarios covering a wide range…
Nitrogen in agri-food systems and the environment: Next steps to a sustainable future
The widespread introduction of synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilisers, post World War II in the 1950s, marked a historic turning point in the world's agricultural systems. The increased N supply…
Long-term variations (1970–2020) and spatial patterns of nitrogen and phosphorus soil budgets and fates in Indian agriculture
The Green Revolution rapidly increased India’s food production since the 1960s, but excessive synthetic fertilizer use caused severe environmental problems.
Global riverine land-to-ocean carbon export constrained by observations and multi-model assessment
Rivers are a key component of the global carbon cycle. They receive vast quantities of terrestrial carbon, of which a large fraction is ultimately exported to the coastal ocean. Our review of…
Global inland-water nitrogen cycling has accelerated in the Anthropocene
Inland waters are an important component of the global nitrogen (N) cycle, functioning not only as land-to-sea transporters but also as active biogeochemical reactors. However, the latter role is not…
Impact of lifestyle, human diet, and nutrient use efficiency in food production on eutrophication of global aquifers and surface waters
A spatially explicit analysis is presented of the impact of human lifestyle, diet, and nutrient use efficiency in food production and wastewater treatment on exceedance of threshold concentrations for…
Impact of groundwater nitrogen legacy on water quality
The loss of agricultural nitrogen (N) is a leading cause of global eutrophication and freshwater and coastal hypoxia. Despite regulatory efforts such as the European Union’s Nitrogen Directive, high…
Trends and geographic variation in adverse impacts of nitrogen use in Europe on human health, climate, and ecosystems: A review
This study assesses the effects of reactive nitrogen (N) pollution on human health, climate, and ecosystems in Europe from 1990 to 2019. It reports temporal and spatial variation in nitrogen-related…
Global regionalised characterisation factors for phosphorus and nitrogen impacts on freshwater fish biodiversity
Inefficient global nutrient (i.e., phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N)) management leads to an increase in nutrient delivery to freshwater and coastal ecosystems and induces eutrophication in these…
PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
