The Nitrogen Cycle at Regional to Global Scales

by Boyer, Elizabeth W.; Howarth, Robert Warren

• ISBN13: 9781402007798
• ISBN10: 1402007795
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-11-01
• Publisher: Kluwer Academic Pub

Summary

Human activity has more than doubled the rate of creation of reactive nitrogen on the land surface of the earth over natural levels, with much of this change occurring in recent decades. Major drivers behind this increase are population growth, agricultural intensification, and emissions of nitrogen pollutants to the atmosphere from the combustion of fossil fuels. As a result, nitrogen is accumulating in the landscape and in water at unprecedented levels, and is connected to a host of environmental problems including effects on natural ecosystems and on human health. For example, eutrophication caused by excessive inputs of N from landscapes to the oceans is one of the greatest factors altering water quality in coastal ecosystems worldwide.This synthesis is the final report from the International SCOPE Project on Nitrogen Transport and Transformations: A Regional and Global Analysis. SCOPE (the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment) authorized the Nitrogen Project because of the need to better understand how humans have altered nitrogen cycling globally and at the scale of large regions. The project has synthesized information through a series of workshops over the past 8 years, involving over 250 scientists from over 20 different nations. Papers in this volume explore the extent to which human activity has affected the nitrogen cycle in terrestrial regions and in the world's oceans, and discuss the implications of accelerated nitrogen cycling for nature and society.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
International Scope Project	x
Towards an ecological understanding of biological nitrogen fixation	1	(46)
Peter M. Vitousek
Ken Cassman
Cory Cleveland
Tim Crews
Christopher B. Field
Nancy B. Grimm
Robert W. Howarth
Roxanne Marino
Luiz Martinelli
Edward B. Rastetter
Janet I. Sprent
Dinitrogen fixation in the world's	47	(52)
D. Karl
A. Michaels
B. Bergman
D. Capone
E. Carpenter
R. Letelier
F. Lipschultz
H. Paerl
D. Sigman
L. Stal
The origin, composition and rates of organic nitrogen deposition: A missing piece of the nitrogen cycle?	99	(38)
Jason C. Neff
Elisabeth A. Holland
Frank J. Dentener
William H. Mcdowell
Kristina M. Russell
Anthropogenic nitrogen sources and relationships to riverine nitrogen export in the northeastern U.S.A.	137	(34)
Elizabeth W. Boyer
Christine L. Goodale
Norbert A. Jaworski
Robert W. Howarth
Sources of nitrate in rivers draining sixteen watersheds in the northeastern U.S.: Isotopic constraints	171	(28)
Bernhard Mayer
Elizabeth W. Boyer
Christine Goodale
Norbert A. Jaworski
Nico Van Breemen
Robert W. Howarth
Sybil Seitzinger
Gilles Billen
Kate Lajtha
Knute Nadel-Hoffer
Douwe Van Dam
Leo J. Hetling
Miloslav Nosal
Keith Paustian
Nitrogen retention in rivers: model development and application to watersheds in the northeastern U.S.A.	199	(40)
Sybil P. Seitzinger
Renee V. Styles
Elizabeth W. Boyer
Richard B. Alexander
Gilles Billen
Robert W. Howarth
Bernhard Mayer
Nicovan Breemen
Forest nitrogen sinks in large eastern U.S. watersheds: estimates from forest inventory and an ecosystem model	239	(28)
Christine L. Goodale
Kate Lajtha
Knute J. Nadelhoffer
Elizabeth W. Boyer
Norbert A. Jaworski
Where did all the nitrogen go? Fate of nitrogen inputs to large watersheds in the north-eastern U.S.A.	267	(28)
N. Van Breemen
E.W. Boyer
C.L. Goodale
N.A. Jaworski
K. Paustian
S.P. Seitzinger
K.J. Nadelhoffer
M. Eve
G. Billen
A comparison of models for estimating the riverine export of nitrogen from large watersheds	295	(46)
Richard B. Alexander
Penny J. Johnes
Elizabeth W. Boyer
Richard A. Smith
Regional analysis of inorganic nitrogen yield and retention in high-elevation ecosystems of the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains	341	(34)
James O. Sickman
John M. Melack
John L. Stoddard
Yield of nitrogen from minimally disturbed watersheds of the United States	375	(12)
William M. Lewis, Jr.
Nitrogen budgets for the Republic of Korea and the Yellow Sea region	387	(18)
V.N. Bashkin
S.U. Park
M.S. Choi
C.B. Lee
Regional nitrogen budgets for China and its major watersheds	405	(24)
G.X. Xing
Z.L. Zhu
Landscape, regional and global estimates of nitrogen flux from land to sea: Errors and uncertainties	429	(48)
Penny J. Johnes
Dan Butterfield
Policy implications of human-accelerated nitrogen cycling	477	(40)
Arvin R. Mosier
Marina Azzaroli Bleken
Pornpimol Chaiwanakupt
Erle C. Ellis
John R. Freney
Richard B. Howarth
Pamela A. Matson
Katsuyuki Minami
Roz Naylor
Kirstin N. Weeks
Zhao-Liang Zhu
Note added in proof	517