Nitrogen : Friend or Foe

or

The Promiscuous Lifestyle of Nitrogen

on Planet Earth
Nitrogen is one of the most important
elements on earth

N
Why?
Nitrogen is essential for BIOLOGICAL PRODUCTIVITY

-plant growth
-Nitrogen is often considered a
‘limiting nutrient’

- animal growth
% of body
weight

-your growth
However…….
-Nitrogen is also a pollutant

-Nitrogen can be too much of a good thing

-A little bit of N goes a long way because it is very reactive

(N ‘gets around’….’it cascades through the biosphere’)

-Adverse effects on health and the environment

 Global N Reservoirs
Atmosphere = 4 billion Tg
Turnover Time = 10 million years
78% of the atmosphere
Terrestrial Biomass = 35 thousand Tg
Turnover Time = 50y

Soils = 95 thousand Tg
Turnover Time = 2000 years
Ocean Biomass = 500Tg
Ocean Chemical = 25 millionTg
(Dissolved atm)

1 Tg = teragram = 1012 = trillion

Ocean Sediments = 100 millionTg

 Global N Reservoirs
Atmosphere = 4 billion Tg
Turnover Time = 10 million years

Terrestrial Biomass = 35 thousand Tg

Turnover Time = 50y
‘Fixed N’

Soils = 95 thousand Tg
Turnover Time = 2000 years
Ocean Biomass = 500Tg
Ocean Chemical = 25 millionTg

1 Tg = 1012 = trillion

Ocean Sediments = 100 millionTg

Increased delivery of reactive N to the environment has
Allowed for increased global food production

Without human-derived N fixation, the current global

Population could not be sustained.
Increased delivery of reactive N to the environment has
Allowed for increased global food production

Without human-derived N fixation, the current global

Population could not be sustained.

The problem is that N doesn’t stay where it is supposed to.

 The Fate of Reactive Nitrogen
Only 4% of the reative N produced in the Haber-Bosch process
and used for animal production enters the human mouth.

N Fertilizer N Fertilizer N N N N
Produced Applied in Crop In Feed in Store Consumed

100 94 47 31 7 4

-6 -47 -16 -24 -3

The rest ( 96%) escapes into air, soil, surface water (rivers, streams)
and groundwater (aquifers) and cascades towards the oceans

Galloway
Galloway JN and Cowling2002
EB. 2002
Nitrogen Pollution Sources

-Wastewater / Septic – Organic N, nitrate, ammonia

Water quality both surface water and
groundwater

-Agricultural/Livestock – Organic N, ammonia, nitrate

Air and Water quality

-Industry (Powerplants, cars) – Mostly N + O compounds

Air Quality initially
Human Health

Nitrate toxicity in children (blue baby syndrome)

Nitrogen oxides, smog, respiratory disease

Environment

Acid rain

Adverse responses of aquatic ecosystem

(algae blooms, low oxygen, fishkills)
Pathways of N Cascade
AIR

-Nitrate emissions from combustion sources

Can travel great distances

-Ammonia emissions from livestock sources

Do not usually travel far from source
Hog Production in USA
(1 dot= 10,000 Hogs and Pigs)
 Nitrogen Deposition Past and Present
mg N/m2/yr

5000
2000
1000
750
500
250
100
50
25
5

1860 1993

-Change in Northern Hemisphere – Fossil fuels (industrial revolution), and ag

-Change in Southern Hemisphere – Slash and burn

Galloway
Galloway and Cowling, et al. 2002
2002; Galloway et al., 2002b
Pathways of N Cascade
Water

Surface water

Ground water
 GroundWater

-Groundwater N pollution
Commonly from wastewater
Unsaturated zone

Org N -Can also be from Ag

(vadose)

Ammonia

-Groundwater N pollution
nitrate Usually in the form of
Nitrate (very mobile)
Surface water
N Loading and Aquatic ecosystem response

• Too much of a good thing

• Increased algal productivity (algae gone wild!)

• Harmful algal blooms

• Formation of nuisance algal mats that get

stuck on your windsurfer

‘Eutrophication’ is the term used to describe

these responses to nutrient
(N) overenrichment
Sybil Seitzinger, 2003
Eutrophication can lead to Hypoxia

-Hypoxia = ‘low oxygen’

HOW?

-Algae are growing like crazy. At the same time algae are dying
like crazy.

-Bacteria are decomposing the algae and consuming oxygen….

Remember Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD)?
 Nitrogen Induced Hypoxia Example:
Gulf of Mexico…..’Dead Zone’

1) Reactive N pours out of the

Mississippi River into the Gulf of Mex

Red = high N
2) N fuels algae that sink and get decomposed.

3) Decomposition consumes oxygen = hypoxia

‘The Dead Zone’
-Hypoxia (low oxygen) can extend 20% of Gulf Coast

Florida
Gray area is hypoxic
Gulf of Mexico

-Responsible for huge economic loss of shellfish

History of Gulf of Mexico algal response

Algal loading to the sediments Midwest fertilzer use

Increased fertilzer use in the Midwest = Increased algae

growth in the Gulf of Mexico
Am I painting a bleak picture? (aka. Review)
-Nitrogen is being ‘fixed’ at unprecedented rates using
The ‘Haber –Bosch’ process.

-Reactive N in the forms of ‘ammonia and nitrate’ are

‘cascading’ through the environment

-Livestock production and fossil fuel burning leads to air

transport of N.

-Agriculture and poor waste management are contributing

To surface water and groundwater N loads.

-All this N is fueling ‘eutrophication’

Is there no stopping it?

Good places for denitrification

Wetland sediments

DEEP Portions of the Deep Ocean

Your friendly neighborhood

Wastewater treatment plant
N Management

-The global balance between denitrification and N fixation has

changed over geologic time

-Natural Denitrification is not currently keeping pace

with human N fixation

-Other strategies are needed to minimize N use and its cascade

 THE CHALLENGE
• Human N fixation must increase to support a growing global
population. So how can we minimize the impacts of adding more
reactive nitrogen to the environment?