Management of Nitrogen: Recent and Current Research and Working groups

The importance of the global nitrogen cycle with respect to its impact on climate has only recently moved towards the top of the scientific agenda.  In November 2009, at the COP15 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, a side event was hosted entitled ‘Options for Including Nitrogen Management in Climate Policy Development’, intending to highlight the need for a new assessment of nitrogen-climate links and possible nitrogen management strategies that may reduce the extent of climate change. A press release on the event by the International Nitrogen Initiative (INI) can be found here. 

The most recent INI event, a Workshop on Nitrogen and Climate, took place this month in the Netherlands, unfortunately, it looks as if the INI website has seen little updating recently…hopefully some details and findings will be published there soon!  

A key recent publication on the subject of nitrogen management is the European Nitrogen Assessment: sources, effects and policy perspectives, a report launched this April.  It is the first comprehensive scientific assessment for European policymakers on the problem of excess nitrogen, it also estimates economic cost of the damage caused, and defines the geographical areas at greatest risk.

An article from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology noted the key messages from the assessment:

• At least ten million people in Europe are potentially exposed to drinking water with nitrate concentrations above recommended levels.
• Nitrates cause toxic algal blooms and dead zones in the sea, especially in the North, Adriatic and Baltic seas and along the coast of Brittany. 
• Nitrogen-based air pollution from agriculture, industry and traffic in urban areas contributes to particulate matter air pollution, which is reducing life expectancy by several months across much of central Europe.
• In the forests atmospheric nitrogen deposition has caused at least 10% loss of plant diversity over two-thirds of Europe.

The report has been made available to download for free on the Nitrogen in Europe website.