Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen a step towards integrated nitrogen policies
Human perturbation of the nitrogen cycle is a major societal threat with impacts on a wide range of global change issues from climate change and air quality to water quality and biodiversity. Our food production and energy use leads to many diffuse nitrogen leakages which serve as the start of a fast growing cascade of effects. Two new papers by leading environmental scientists and supported and co-authored by ESF-NinE and COST 729 highlight the problem in the May 16 issue of the leading journal Science.
The researchers discuss how food and energy production are causing reactive nitrogen to accumulate in soil, water, the atmosphere and coastal oceanic waters, contributing to the greenhouse effect, smog, haze, acid rain, loss of biodiversity, coastal "dead zones" and stratospheric ozone depletion. A nitrogen atom can lead to a cascade of effects, e.g. an atom that starts out as part of a smog-forming compound may be deposited in lakes and forests as nitric acid, which can kill fish and insects. Carried out to the coast, the same nitrogen atom may contribute to red tides and dead zones. Finally, the nitrogen will be put back into the atmosphere as part of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, which contributes to the greenhouse effect and destroys atmospheric ozone. In one of the papers directions are proposed to limit the growth in reactive nitrogen production and related effects.
The papers show that there is much knowledge about nitrogen and its transformations in the environment. However, the complexity and extent of the interactions mean that current scientific understanding and policy making has become separated into several parallel streams. Under the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution a Task Force on Reactive Nitrogen (TFRN) has been established which will be the policy framework for dealing with the nitrogen cascade in Europe. It is the first official body that will engage with other policy areas related to nitrogen developing technical and scientific information and options which can be used for strategy development across the UNECE, catalysing a more integrated approach of mitigating nitrogen. The aim of the new Task Force is to start investigating more holistic approaches to managing reactive nitrogen, linking the threats to air quality and biodiversity loss with other issues like water quality and greenhouse gas balance. The Task Force is co-chaired by the Netherlands (Prof. Oene Oenema, Wageningen University Research centre) and the UK (Dr. Sutton, CEH).
The Task Force results from the efforts of two networking programs on integrated nitrogen: COST Action 729 on Assessing and Managing Nitrogen Fluxes in the Atmosphere-Biosphere System in Europe and the European Science Foundation Program: Nitrogen in Europe (NinE): Current Problems and Future Solutions. The next step for the ESF and COST programs is to produce a European Nitrogen Assessment report that will address current nitrogen issues, the cascade effects and the interactions and feedbacks. It will provide valuable insight for governments and other stakeholders in the balance between the benefits of fixed nitrogen to society (fertilizer, food, fuel and energy), against the different adverse effects of excess nitrogen in the environment.
The inaugural meeting of the TFRN will take place jointly with the first workshop of the European Nitrogen Assessment, at the Wageningen International Conference Centre (20-23 May 2008).
Literature:
Transformation of the Nitrogen Cycle: Recent Trends, Questions, and Potential Solutions
James N. Galloway, Alan R. Townsend, Jan Willem Erisman, Mateete Bekunda, Zucong Cai, John R. Freney, Luiz A. Martinelli, Sybil P. Seitzinger, and Mark A. Sutton
Science 16 May 2008: 889-892.
Impacts of Atmospheric Anthropogenic Nitrogen on the Open Ocean
R. A. Duce, J. LaRoche, K. Altieri, K. R. Arrigo, A. R. Baker, D. G. Capone, S. Cornell, F. Dentener, J. Galloway, R. S. Ganeshram, R. J. Geider, T. Jickells, M. M. Kuypers, R. Langlois, P. S. Liss, S. M. Liu, J. J. Middelburg, C. M. Moore, S. Nickovic, A. Oschlies, T. Pedersen, J. Prospero, R. Schlitzer, S. Seitzinger, L. L. Sorensen, M. Uematsu, O. Ulloa, M. Voss, B. Ward, and L. Zamora
Science 16 May 2008: 893-897.
More information:
Jan Willem Erisman, Chair of ESF-NinE and COST 729
Energy research Center of the Netherlands, ECN
P.O.Box 1, 1755 ZG Petten, the Netherlands
erisman@remove-this-part-ecn.nl
