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Decline in atmospheric nitrogen deposition in China between 2010 and 2020

Nature Geoscience volume 17, pages 733–736 (2024)Cite this article

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A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 15 July 2024

This article has been updated

Abstract

The deposition of atmospheric nitrogen sourced from emissions has broad environmental consequences, but long-term measurements of recent air pollution control and nitrogen management effectiveness in China are rare. Here we report measurements from a ground-based monitoring network that show a 14% decline in the rate of nitrogen deposition over China from 2010 to 2020, including a 34% decrease in oxidized nitrogen (mainly industrial) and a 10% decline in reduced nitrogen (mostly agricultural) with larger declines over eastern China. The increasing ratio of reduced to oxidized nitrogen deposition (from 1.5 to 2.0 between 2010 and 2020) underscores the need for effective agricultural nitrogen management.

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Fig. 1: Changes in Nr deposition over China between 2010 and 2020.
Fig. 2: Changes in N deposition in different regions between 2010 and 2020.

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Data availability

All data supporting the findings of this paper are available within the manuscript, and source data can be obtained via Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24647514 (ref. 57).

Code availability

The GEOS-Chem model code is open source and available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3676008 (ref. 58).

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Acknowledgements

This study is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42371324 and 42277097), the Chinese State Key Research and Development Programme (2023YFD1900604 and 2017YFD0200101) and the High-level Team Project of China Agricultural University (X.L.). The analysis in this study is supported by the Supercomputing Center of Lanzhou University.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Lei Liu, Zhang Wen, Sheng Liu, Xiuying Zhang, Xuejun Liu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Nutrient Use and Management, Beijing Key Laboratory of Farmland Soil Pollution Prevention and Remediation, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China

    Lei Liu, Zhang Wen & Xuejun Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Western China’s Environmental Systems (Ministry of Education), College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

    Lei Liu & Sheng Liu

  3. International Institute for Earth System Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Xiuying Zhang

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Contributions

L.L. and X.L. designed the research; L.L., S.L. and Z.W. wrote the draft; L.L., Z.W., X.Z. and S.L. performed the analysis and prepared the figures and all co-authors contributed to the text and interpretation of the results.

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Correspondence to Lei Liu or Xuejun Liu.

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Nature Geoscience thanks Frank Berendse, David Fowler, Chaoqing Yu and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editor: Xujia Jiang, in collaboration with the Nature Geoscience team.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Changes in contributions of dry and wet Nr deposition in China between 2010 and 2020.

a, ratio of dry to wet N deposition; b, ratio of dry to total N deposition.

Extended Data Fig. 2 The flowchart of this study.

We first collected N deposition measurements, and calculated trends in N deposition at the site and regional levels. Subsequently, we calculated national N deposition trends using GEOS-Chem driven by N emission datasets and explore the emission-deposition relationship by making sensitivity analysis. Notably, the major sources of agricultural NH3 and industrial NOx are shown in this figure, while in fact other sources (such as lightning, agricultural soil NOx emissions and NH3 from NH3 synthesis plants) can also contribute to Nr emissions.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Changes in average N deposition (kg N ha−1 yr−1) in China between 2010 and 2020 based on the GEOS-Chem.

(a) Total Nr deposition; (b) NHx deposition; (c) NOy deposition; (d) Ratio of NHx to NOy deposition (based on N).

Extended Data Fig. 4 Comparisons of Nr deposition budgets (Tg N yr−1) among China, USA and Western Europe.

(a-c) Total Nr deposition; (d-f) NHx deposition; (g-i) NOy deposition.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Comparisons of average Nr deposition (kg N ha−1 yr−1) among China, USA and Western Europe.

(a-c) Total Nr deposition; (d-f) NHx deposition; (g-i) NOy deposition.

Extended Data Fig. 6 Avoidable N fertilizer without affecting current yields.

(a) Spatial distribution of overused N fertilizer for major crops; (b) Average percentage of the attainable yield achieved by wheat, maize, and rice.

Extended Data Table 1 The sensitivity analysis of the responses of N deposition to emission changes (1 Tg N or S yr−1) by the Monte Carlo Method
Full size table
Extended Data Table 2 Changes in N deposition (kg N ha−1 yr−1) for six geographical regions
Full size table

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Liu, L., Wen, Z., Liu, S. et al. Decline in atmospheric nitrogen deposition in China between 2010 and 2020. Nat. Geosci. 17, 733–736 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01484-4

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