Nitrogen pollution knows no bounds
Name
boyle 2017-04 Coral N isotope perspective.pdf
Size
507.71 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
3726f1caa55c757f9a58ed314707765a
Author(s)
Boyle, Edward A
Date Issued
May 2017
Journal
Science
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Citation
Boyle, Edward. “Nitrogen Pollution Knows No Bounds.” Science 356, 6339 (May 2017): 700–701 © 2017 American Association for the Advancement of Science
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
In recent decades, the flow of fixed—that is, biologically usable—nitrogen from human activities into the environment has grown substantially. The sources include excess production and use of nitrogen fertilizers; ammonia emitted from animal husbandry and sewage; and nitrogen oxides emitted by automobiles, airplanes, and fossil fuel power plants. The resulting nitrogen flux into the ocean may approach the magnitude of natural sources (1–3). However, it is difficult to specify the integrated increase over natural sources precisely because there is very little data for when nitrogen sources were mostly natural. On page 749 of this issue, Ren et al. use the nitrogen isotope composition of a 50-year coral core from the South China Sea to show that the natural upwelling flux of fixed nitrogen has risen by 20% during the past two decades (4).
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aan3242
