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An Earth-system perspective of the global nitrogen cycle

Nature volume 451, pages 293–296 (2008)Cite this article

With humans having an increasing impact on the planet, the interactions between the nitrogen cycle, the carbon cycle and climate are expected to become an increasingly important determinant of the Earth system.

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Figure 1: Depiction of the global nitrogen cycle on land and in the ocean.
Figure 2: Changes in the climate system and the global nitrogen and carbon cycles over the past 75,000 years.
Figure 3: Nitrogen–carbon–climate interactions.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by funds from ETH Zurich. We thank J. Flückiger for helping us with the ice-core records.

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  1. Nicolas Gruber is in the Environmental Physics group, Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zurich, Universitätstrasse 16, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.,

    Nicolas Gruber

  2. James N. Galloway is in the Environmental Sciences Department, University of Virginia, 291 McCormick Road, Charlottesville, Virginia 22904, USA.,

    James N. Galloway

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Correspondence should be addressed to N.G. (nicolas.gruber@env.ethz.ch).

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Gruber, N., Galloway, J. An Earth-system perspective of the global nitrogen cycle. Nature 451, 293–296 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature06592

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