TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing groundwater denitrification spatially is the key to targeted agricultural nitrogen regulation
AU - Hansen, Birgitte
AU - Aamand, Jens
AU - Blicher-Mathiesen, Gitte
AU - Christiansen, Anders V.
AU - Claes, Niels
AU - Dalgaard, Tommy
AU - Frederiksen, Rasmus R.
AU - Jacobsen, Brian H.
AU - Jakobsen, Rasmus
AU - Kallesøe, Anders
AU - Kim, Hyojin
AU - Koch, Julian
AU - Møller, Ingelise
AU - Madsen, Rasmus B.
AU - Schaper, Stefan
AU - Sandersen, Peter B.E.
AU - Voutchkova, Denitza D.
AU - Wiborg, Irene
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Globally, food production for an ever-growing population is a well-known threat to the environment due to losses of excess reactive nitrogen (N) from agriculture. Since the 1980s, many countries of the Global North, such as Denmark, have successfully combatted N pollution in the aquatic environment by regulation and introduction of national agricultural one-size-fits-all mitigation measures. Despite this success, further reduction of the N load is required to meet the EU water directives demands, and implementation of additional targeted N regulation of agriculture has scientifically and politically been found to be a way forward. In this paper, we present a comprehensive concept to make future targeted N regulation successful environmentally and economically. The concept focus is on how and where to establish detailed maps of the groundwater denitrification potential (N retention) in areas, such as Denmark, covered by Quaternary deposits. Quaternary deposits are abundant in many parts of the world, and often feature very complex geological and geochemical architectures. We show that this subsurface complexity results in large local differences in groundwater N retention. Prioritization of the most complex areas for implementation of the new concept can be a cost-efficient way to achieve lower N impact on the aquatic environment.
AB - Globally, food production for an ever-growing population is a well-known threat to the environment due to losses of excess reactive nitrogen (N) from agriculture. Since the 1980s, many countries of the Global North, such as Denmark, have successfully combatted N pollution in the aquatic environment by regulation and introduction of national agricultural one-size-fits-all mitigation measures. Despite this success, further reduction of the N load is required to meet the EU water directives demands, and implementation of additional targeted N regulation of agriculture has scientifically and politically been found to be a way forward. In this paper, we present a comprehensive concept to make future targeted N regulation successful environmentally and economically. The concept focus is on how and where to establish detailed maps of the groundwater denitrification potential (N retention) in areas, such as Denmark, covered by Quaternary deposits. Quaternary deposits are abundant in many parts of the world, and often feature very complex geological and geochemical architectures. We show that this subsurface complexity results in large local differences in groundwater N retention. Prioritization of the most complex areas for implementation of the new concept can be a cost-efficient way to achieve lower N impact on the aquatic environment.
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-024-55984-9
DO - 10.1038/s41598-024-55984-9
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 38448554
AN - SCOPUS:85187126302
VL - 14
JO - Scientific Reports
JF - Scientific Reports
SN - 2045-2322
M1 - 5538
ER -