Warming and redistribution of nitrogen inputs drive an increase in terrestrial nitrous oxide emission factor

E. Harris (), L. Yu, Y-P. Wang, J. Mohn, S. Henne, E. Bai, M. Barthel, M. Bauters, P. Boeckx, C. Dorich, M. Farrell, P. B. Krummel, Z. M. Loh, M. Reichstein, J. Six, M. Steinbacher, N. S. Wells, M. Bahn and P. Rayner
Additional contact information
E. Harris: Swiss Data Science Centre, ETH Zurich
L. Yu: Tsinghua University
Y-P. Wang: Climate Science Centre, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere
J. Mohn: Laboratory for Air Pollution & Environmental Technology, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology
S. Henne: Laboratory for Air Pollution & Environmental Technology, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology
E. Bai: Northeast Normal University
M. Barthel: Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich
M. Bauters: Ghent University
P. Boeckx: Ghent University
C. Dorich: Colorado State University
M. Farrell: CSIRO Agriculture and Food
P. B. Krummel: Climate Science Centre, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere
Z. M. Loh: Climate Science Centre, CSIRO Oceans and Atmosphere
M. Reichstein: Department of Biogeochemical Integration, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
J. Six: Department of Environmental Systems Science, ETH Zurich
M. Steinbacher: Laboratory for Air Pollution & Environmental Technology, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology
N. S. Wells: Southern Cross University
M. Bahn: University of Innsbruck
P. Rayner: University of Melbourne

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Anthropogenic nitrogen inputs cause major negative environmental impacts, including emissions of the important greenhouse gas N2O. Despite their importance, shifts in terrestrial N loss pathways driven by global change are highly uncertain. Here we present a coupled soil-atmosphere isotope model (IsoTONE) to quantify terrestrial N losses and N2O emission factors from 1850-2020. We find that N inputs from atmospheric deposition caused 51% of anthropogenic N2O emissions from soils in 2020. The mean effective global emission factor for N2O was 4.3 ± 0.3% in 2020 (weighted by N inputs), much higher than the surface area-weighted mean (1.1 ± 0.1%). Climate change and spatial redistribution of fertilisation N inputs have driven an increase in global emission factor over the past century, which accounts for 18% of the anthropogenic soil flux in 2020. Predicted increases in fertilisation in emerging economies will accelerate N2O-driven climate warming in coming decades, unless targeted mitigation measures are introduced.

Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32001-z Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:13:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-022-32001-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-32001-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().