Nitrogen losses from food production in the North China Plain compared to environmental targets
- 1College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, National Academy of Agriculture Green Development, Key Laboratory of Plant–Soil Interactions, Ministry of Education, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China (fanlei.meng@wur.nl)
- 2Water Systems and Global Change Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, 6708 PB, Netherlands (mengru.wang@wur.nl)
- 3Meteorology and Air Quality Group, Wageningen University & Research, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, the Netherlands (reinder.ronda@wur.nl)
- 4Environmental Systems Analysis Group, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, 6708 PB, Netherlands (carolien.kroeze@wur.nl)
- 5Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Hebei Key Laboratory of Soil Ecology, Center for Agricultural Resources Research,Institute of Genetic and Developmental Biology,The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hebei 050021,China(malin1979@ms.sjziam.ac.cn)
North China Plain (NCP) is a region in China, with highly intensive food production and a hotspot of nitrogen (N) losses to the environment. Region-specific N management is, therefore, required to effectively reduce agricultural N losses. For this it is important to identify the N flows and environmental targets in the food chain (including crop production, animal production, food processing, and human consumption) at the county scale. We developed an integrated assessment N framework. It combines a food chain approach with an air quality model and groundwater model. We apply this method to quantify the relative contributions from parts of the food chain to N losses. We identify environmental targets to air and water in Quzhou, a typical agricultural county in the NCP. We found that N losses to the environment from the food chain were ~11 kt in Quzhou in 2017. Approximately 80% of this amount is from crop and animal production, which is primarily caused by the low N use efficiency in crop production (28%) and animal production (18%). Ammonia (NH3) emissions to air (4.1 kt N) and N leaching (2.1 kt N), and direct discharges of manure to water (1.9 kt N) are the main contributors to the N losses in Quzhou. To meet the environmental targets for air quality (PM2.5) and groundwater quality, the NH3 emissions and N leaching need to be reduced by 55%, and 21-50%, respectively. Our findings indicate that better nutrient management is urgently needed to reduce agricultural N losses and to support Agriculture Green Development in NCP.
How to cite: Meng, F., Wang, M., Ronda, R., Strokal, M., Kroeze, C., Ma, L., Xu, W., and Zhang, F.: Nitrogen losses from food production in the North China Plain compared to environmental targets, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-12416, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-12416, 2023.