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Global terrestrial nitrogen fixation and its modification by agriculture

Nature volume 643, pages 705–711 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) is the largest natural source of new nitrogen (N) that supports terrestrial productivity1,2, yet estimates of global terrestrial BNF remain highly uncertain3,4. Here we show that this uncertainty is partly because of sampling bias, as field BNF measurements in natural terrestrial ecosystems occur where N fixers are 17 times more prevalent than their mean abundances worldwide. To correct this bias, we develop new estimates of global terrestrial BNF by upscaling field BNF measurements using spatially explicit abundances of all major biogeochemical N-fixing niches. We find that natural biomes sustain lower BNF, 65 (52–77) Tg N yr−1, than previous empirical bottom-up estimates3,4, with most BNF occurring in tropical forests and drylands. We also find high agricultural BNF in croplands and cultivated pastures, 56 (54–58) Tg N yr−1. Agricultural BNF has increased terrestrial BNF by 64% and total terrestrial N inputs from all sources by 60% over pre-industrial levels. Our results indicate that BNF may impose stronger constraints on the carbon sink in natural terrestrial biomes and represent a larger source of agricultural N than is generally considered in analyses of the global N cycle5,6, with implications for proposed safe operating limits for N use7,8.

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Fig. 1: Location of field measurements of BNF in natural terrestrial biomes.
Fig. 2: Global distribution of terrestrial BNF.
Fig. 3: Global estimates of terrestrial N inputs to the land surface.
Fig. 4: Relationships of global natural terrestrial BNF with AET and NPP.
Fig. 5: Biome and niche contribution to global terrestrial BNF.

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Data availability

The global gridded datasets of BNF generated here are available in the ScienceBase repository (ref. 74) (https://doi.org/10.5066/P13THKNR). The underlying BNF rate dataset in natural terrestrial biomes is also available in ScienceBase (ref. 75) (https://doi.org/10.5066/P1MFBVHK). All other data are available from the databases cited or are in the main text or the Supplementary Information.

Code availability

All analyses were conducted using publicly available code packages: raster (ref. 73) and terra (ref. 66).

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Acknowledgements

This paper is a contribution from a working group on BNF supported by the US Geological Survey (USGS) John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis (G19AC00036, S.S.P., D.N.L.M., C.C.C., S.C.R.). This research was supported in part by an appointment to the USGS Research Participation Program administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE) through an interagency agreement between the US Departments of Energy (DOE) and Interior (DOI) under DOE contract no. DE-SC0014664. D.N.L.M. was funded by the National Science Foundation (IOS-2129542). S.A.B. was funded by the Leverhulme Trust and the Natural Environment Research Council (NE/S009663/1 and NE/M019497/1). J.P. was funded by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (819202). E.R.-C. was supported by FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia e Inovacion-Agencia Estatal de Investigación (PID2021-127631NA-I00 and RYC2020-030762-I). V.G.S. was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Biological Environmental Research Program to UT-Battelle, LLC (DE-AC05-00OR22725) and the NGEE-Arctic project. This paper was reviewed by the USGS, USFS and USEPA for technical and policy content and approved for publication. The views and conclusions in this article represent those of USGS, and represent those solely of the authors from ORAU/ORISE, USFS and USEPA. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the US government. We thank C. Ely, K. Kavanagh, J. Larison, T. Greaver, A. Gray and M. Brehob.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Carla R. Reis Ely

    Present address: Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Carla R. Reis Ely

  2. Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, United States Geological Survey, Corvallis, OR, USA

    Steven S. Perakis

  3. Department of Ecosystem and Conservation Sciences, W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, University of Montana, Missoula, MT, USA

    Cory C. Cleveland & Katherine A. Dynarski

  4. Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

    Duncan N. L. Menge

  5. Southwest Biological Science Center, United States Geological Survey, Moab, UT, USA

    Sasha C. Reed

  6. Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Benton N. Taylor

  7. Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Millbrook, NY, USA

    Sarah A. Batterman

  8. School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK

    Sarah A. Batterman

  9. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Smithsonian Institution, Ancon, Panama

    Sarah A. Batterman

  10. Office of Research and Development, US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington DC, USA

    Christopher M. Clark

  11. The Land Institute, Salina, KS, USA

    Timothy E. Crews

  12. Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Maga Gei

  13. Department of Forest Ecology and Management, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Umea, Sweden

    Michael J. Gundale

  14. School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, New South Wales, Australia

    David F. Herridge

  15. PNW Research Station, USDA Forest Service, Portland, OR, USA

    Sarah E. Jovan

  16. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

    Sian Kou-Giesbrecht

  17. CSIRO Agriculture and Food, CSIRO, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

    Mark B. Peoples

  18. Water and Development Research Group, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland

    Johannes Piipponen

  19. Centro de Investigación de Colecciones Científicas de la Universidad de Almería (CECOUAL) y Departamento de Agronomía, Universidad de Almería, Almería, Spain

    Emilio Rodríguez-Caballero

  20. Multiphase Chemistry Department, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany

    Emilio Rodríguez-Caballero & Bettina Weber

  21. Environmental Science Division and Climate Change Science Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

    Verity G. Salmon

  22. Department of Biology and School of the Environment, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Fiona M. Soper

  23. Earthshot Labs, Sebastopol, CA, USA

    Anika P. Staccone

  24. Division of Plant Sciences, Institute for Biology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria

    Bettina Weber

  25. Graduate School of Geography, Clark University, Worcester, MA, USA

    Christopher A. Williams

  26. Odum School of Ecology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Nina Wurzburger

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  1. Carla R. Reis Ely
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Contributions

C.R.R.E., S.S.P., D.N.L.M., C.C.C. and S.C.R. led the investigation. C.R.R.E. conducted formal analyses and wrote the first draft with inputs from S.S.P., D.N.L.M., C.C.C. and S.C.R. All authors, C.R.R.E., S.S.P., D.N.L.M., C.C.C., S.C.R., B.N.T., S.A.B., C.M.C., T.E.C., K.A.D., M.G., M.J.G., D.F.H., S.E.J., S.K.-G., M.B.P., J.P., E.R.-C., V.G.S., F.M.S., A.P.S., B.W., C.A.W. and N.W., contributed to methods development, data collection and editing the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carla R. Reis Ely.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Fig. 1 Confidence interval of natural terrestrial BNF.

Total BNF rate (kg N ha−1 yr−1) lower (a) and upper bound (b) 68% confidence interval values (analogous to ± 1 standard error). BNF is mapped across terrestrial lands aside from croplands, urban areas, and areas with permanent snow/ice cover.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Confidence interval of agricultural BNF.

Total BNF rate (kg N ha−1 yr−1) lower (a) and upper bound (b) 68% confidence interval values (analogous to ± 1 standard error). N-fixing crop BNF is mapped across the total land area of croplands (by country) and N-fixing forage BNF is mapped across the total land area of grasslands between 67°N/S (thus overlapping with natural grasslands in Extended Data Fig. 1), with rates adjusted to total land areas (see details in Methods and Supplementary Methods).

Extended Data Table 1 Niche-specific estimates of BNF activity per unit of N fixer or N-fixing substrate abundance in natural terrestrial biomes
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Extended Data Table 2 Niche-specific estimates of BNF activity per unit of N fixer abundance in agricultural systems
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Extended Data Table 3 Summary of current terrestrial BNF rates (kg N ha−1 yr−1) by niche by biome and global totals
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Extended Data Table 4 Summary of current terrestrial BNF inputs (Tg N yr−1) by niche by biome and global totals
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Extended Data Table 5 Summary of N fixer or N-fixing substrate abundance in natural terrestrial biomes
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Extended Data Table 6 Alternative calculation of current terrestrial BNF rates (kg N ha−1 yr−1) using the assumptions in ref. 3
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Extended Data Table 7 Alternative calculation of current terrestrial BNF inputs (Tg N yr−1) using the assumptions in ref. 3
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Extended Data Table 8 Summary of pre-industrial terrestrial BNF inputs (Tg N yr−1) by niche by biome and global total
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Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

This file contains Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Text, Supplementary Figs. 1–2, Supplementary Tables 1–7 and Supplementary References.

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Reis Ely, C.R., Perakis, S.S., Cleveland, C.C. et al. Global terrestrial nitrogen fixation and its modification by agriculture. Nature 643, 705–711 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09201-w

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