Scientists are concerned that the growth of commercial-scale agriculture on farms in tropical regions is increasing the global nitrogen footprint.
A new study from Columbia University finds that nitrogen emissions from agricultural production in the tropics is likely to increase and, in some cases, overtake temperate climates, exposing more people to polluted air and water.
“From the Amazon to Africa, tropical regions are expected to play a growing role in supplying our world with food,” said Alexandra Huddell, a doctoral student at Columbia University and lead author of a recent study published in Global Change Biology. “But we have to be careful to prevent the damage that nitrogen pollution causes in places like China, Europe and the United States.”
Much of the culpability for global nitrogen pollution, caused by the leak of fertilizer from the soil to our air and water, lies with the world’s temperate regions, which include most of North America and all of Europe.
Farmers apply nitrogen-based fertilizer not only to increase crop yields for foods that we eat, but also for feed to sustain livestock. Excess nitrogen produces pollutants, which contribute to climate change, degrade freshwater quality and impair our ability to breathe.
Continue reading at Columbia University Earth Institute
Image via Columbia University Earth Institute
