European Nitrogen Assessment - Technical Summary

A century ago, when the world depended on fossil nitrogen and manure recycling, there wasinsuffi cient reactive nitrogen to feed the growing human population. With the invention of theHaber–Bosch process, humans found a way to make cheap reactive nitrogen from the almostinexhaustable supply of atmospheric di-nitrogen. What humans did not anticipate was that themassive increase in reactive nitrogen supply, exacerbated by fossil fuel burning, would lead toa web of new environmental problems cutting across all global-change challenges.Th e European Nitrogen Assessment presents the fi rst full, continental-scale assessmentof reactive nitrogen in the environment and sets the problem in context by providing amultidisciplinary introduction to the key processes in the nitrogen cycle. Issues of up-scalingfrom fi eld, farm and city to national and continental scales are addressed in detail withemphasis on opportunities for better management at local to global levels. A comprehensiveseries of maps showing nitrogen pools and fl uxes across Europe also highlight the locationof the major threats and allow a comparison of national budgets for the fi rst time. Five keysocietal threats posed by reactive nitrogen are assessed, providing a framework for a set ofpolicies that can be used for joined-up management of the nitrogen cycle in Europe. Th isincludes the fi rst cost–benefi t analysis for diff erent reactive nitrogen forms and considerationof future scenarios.

SUTTON Mark A;  BILLEN Gilles;  BLEEKER Albert;  ERISMAN Jan Willem;  GRENNFELT Peringe;  VAN GRINSVEN Hans;  GRIZZETTI Bruna;  HOWARD Clare;  LEIP Adrian; 

2011-07-29

Cambridge University Press

JRC65632

9781107006126,   

http://www.nine-esf.org/ENA-Book,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC65632,