Microbial breakthroughs in 2022 now allow us to link United Nations water volumes with EEA nitrates data, to reveal world nitrates processing loads in kilotons, including how much nitrate is from natural sources, and how much is from human activity.

The European Environment Agency data on nitrates levels gives us a ratio of 8:1 for nitrates in groundwater versus river water, when we analyse the data across 27 countries. The “missing” nitrate, at an average of about 89%, matches the levels of “missing” nitrate due to capture of nitrate on the river bottom, by microbes known as diatoms, which take up 65-95% of the water nitrate load.

Diatoms convert nitrate to ammonium in daily cycles, that are linked to sunlight and Oxygen abundance, encountered in typical river and lake conditions.

We can identify that the major pathway of nitrate into rivers and lakes is through groundwater feeds, which average 25% of surface waterway volumes worldwide -because their nitrate levels dwarf those from any other source. We can also identify that the main mechanism of nitrates removal in river bottoms is diatom capture, where diatoms take up the bulk loads of nitrate arriving in the groundwaters beneath.

Diatoms' virtual monopoly on nitrates conversion may allow us to control N2O and global warming levels, by intercepting the conveyor belt system of nitrates to diatoms in waterways. We can capture and repurpose the nutrient for use as farm fertilizer and harvest diatom ammonium as a carrier for Hydrogen fuel. Diatoms are already farmed commercially for fish food, showing they are amenable to farming, and they are already a source of soil conditioner for farms. Ammonium is harvested in wastewater plants for Hydrogen fuel purposes already, and diatoms offer a low carbon method of ammonium production.

The junction between the UN, EEA and microbial data also allows us to calculate the world processing levels of nitrate in terms of both natural and human produced components. We obtain a range around 300,000 kilotons per annum as being processed by surface waters worldwide from all sources. About 120,000 kilotons of the load comes from human produced sources.

Ammonium nutrient from diatom nitrate conversion is quickly absorbed by aquatic plants and riverside trees, but there is a risk of high levels on hot days in lowered Oxygen conditions. Trees draw up around 1000 litres a day of groundwaters in river basins, so that ammonium and nitrates consumption by trees is additionally a main mechanism of Nitrogen reduction around the riverbed.