Fertilised to death

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>Fertilised to death</h1>
<h4></h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p><P>The face of farming has been transformed by the industrial production of nitrogen-based fertiliser. But scientists estimate that almost half of the nitrogen spread onto fields is not taken up by crops, and instead washes away.</P><br />
<P>In this article, Nicola Nosengo reports on the impact this is having on the world’s forests. A significant amount of reactive nitrogen ends up in the air as ammonia and nitrogen oxide gases. When the latter dissolves in water vapour it produces nitric acid, which falls to the ground as acid rain. </P><br />
<P>The effects on forests can already be seen: trees are dying and the relative abundance of different plant species in some woods has started to change. Scientists are planning to propose a protocol to address the issue of nitrogen at a global level at the 3<SUP>rd</SUP> International Nitrogen Conference to be held next year in Nanjing, China.</P><br />
<P><a href="http://www.nature.com/login/scidev_login.taf?ref=/nature/journal/v425/n6961/full/425894a_fs.html" target="_blank" onclick="pageTracker._trackPageview('/tracking/external/'+this.href);" rel="noopener noreferrer">Link to full article in <EM>Nature</EM></A></P><br />
<P>Reference: <em>Nature</em> 425, 894 (2003)</P></p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/features/fertilised-to-death/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/features/fertilised-to-death/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

The face of farming has been transformed by the industrial production of nitrogen-based fertiliser. But scientists estimate that almost half of the nitrogen spread onto fields is not taken up by crops, and instead washes away.

In this article, Nicola Nosengo reports on the impact this is having on the world’s forests. A significant amount of reactive nitrogen ends up in the air as ammonia and nitrogen oxide gases. When the latter dissolves in water vapour it produces nitric acid, which falls to the ground as acid rain.

The effects on forests can already be seen: trees are dying and the relative abundance of different plant species in some woods has started to change. Scientists are planning to propose a protocol to address the issue of nitrogen at a global level at the 3^rd International Nitrogen Conference to be held next year in Nanjing, China.

Link to full article in Nature

Reference: Nature 425, 894 (2003)