Nitrogen is essential for all living things.
Nitrogen is essential for all living things. Synthetic fertilizer, which contains rich reactive nitrogen, has sustained food production and thereby the global population, but the nitrogen it emits is also a burden to the environment—air pollution, soil acidification, water eutrophication, to name just some of the consequences.
Although numerous field studies have been conducted to understand the implications of atmospheric nitrogen deposition in the environment, conventional manipulative experiments have mostly been employed, by adding nitrogen solution directly onto grassland or forest floors (soil).
In an article recently published in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters, Dr Yuepeng Pan, from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his coauthors, challenge the traditional approach in evaluating the impacts of nitrogen deposition.
Read more at Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Image: Nitrogen deposition via rain, gas and aerosol (Credit: Yuepeng Pan).
