Nitrogen leaching from natural ecosystems under global change: a modelling study

Braakhekke, Maarten C.; Rebel, Karin T.; Dekker, Stefan C.; Smith, Benjamin; Beusen, Arthur H. W.; Wassen, Martin J.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-1121-2017

Articles | Volume 8, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-1121-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-1121-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 8, issue 4

Research article

|

12 Dec 2017

Research article |

| 12 Dec 2017

Nitrogen leaching from natural ecosystems under global change: a modelling study

Maarten C. Braakhekke, Karin T. Rebel, Stefan C. Dekker, Benjamin Smith, Arthur H. W. Beusen, and Martin J. Wassen

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-1121-2017-supplement

Data sets

Nitrogen leaching from natural ecosystems under global change: a modelling study, DANS M. C. Braakhekke https://doi.org/10.17026/dans-zrx-7xhu

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Short summary

Nitrogen input in natural ecosystems usually has a positive effect on plant growth. However, too much N causes N leaching, which contributes to water pollution. Using a global model we estimated that N leaching from natural lands has increased by 73 % during the 20th century, mainly due to rising N deposition from the atmosphere caused by emissions from fossil fuels and agriculture. Climate change and increasing CO₂ concentration had positive and negative effects (respectively) on N leaching.