Alarming nutrient pollution of Chinese rivers as a result of agricultural transitions

Strokal, Maryna; Ma, Lin; Bai, Zhaohai; Luan, Sheng; Kroeze, Carolien; Oenema, O.; Velthof, G.L.; Zhang, Fusuo

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/11/2/024014

Cited by 180 publications

(138 citation statements)

References 60 publications

(122 reference statements)

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“…7), and to locally very high livestock densities. These specialized livestock farms have to import most or all feed from elsewhere, have insufficient land for proper manure disposal, and as a consequence have high N and P surpluses and losses to the environment (Bai et al 2014;Strokal et al 2016).…”

Section: Agglomeration Of Livestock Production and Nutrient Balancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

International trade of animal feed: its relationships with livestock density and N and P balances at country level

Wang

Liu

Hou

et al. 2017

Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst

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International trade of food and feed has facilitated the specialization and agglomeration of agricultural production systems in many countries. Confined animals in specialized production systems are increasingly supplied with soybean and maize, imported from other countries. This has increased animal productivity but has also contributed to spatially decoupled crop and animal production systems. We analyzed the changes in the trade of soybean and maize at the global level in the period 1961-2011, and related these to the changes in livestock density and nutrient balances in the whole food system for 11 selected countries. Export of soybean and maize remained dominated by few countries (mainly USA, Argentina and Brazil) during the period 1961-2011, while the number of importing countries increased. Increases in the import of maize and soybean are positively related with changes in livestock density and N and P balances of national food systems. Imported soybean accounted for 12-36% of the calculated N balance at country level, and imported maize for 0-26%. There were large differences between importing countries; increases in the N surplus ranged from 75 to 306 kg N/ha and in the P surplus from 2 to 49 kg P/ha when the mean livestock density increased 1 LU/ha. This variation is related to differences in nutrient management regulations and to spatial variations in livestock density within countries. Our study contributes to the understanding of the complex relationships between the international trade of animal feed, livestock density and environmental impacts associated with N and P balances.

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Section: Agglomeration Of Livestock Production and Nutrient Balancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

International trade of animal feed: its relationships with livestock density and N and P balances at country level

Wang

Liu

Hou

et al. 2017

Nutr Cycl Agroecosyst

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“…Undoubtedly, nitrogen from soil leaching and agricultural and industrial discharge is ultimately transported into rivers, and thus leads to enhanced nitrogen loading (Stelzer & Scott, 2018;Strokal et al, 2016;Zhao et al, 2015). Recently, most of rivers around the world, particularly in the developing countries, have suffered from high nitrogen loading which poses a great threat to water quality and ecological functions (Gruber & Galloway, 2008;Strokal et al, 2016;Tomasek et al, 2017;Vilmin et al, 2008;Zhao et al, 2015). River nitrogen pollution is also expected to cause microbial community alterations (Dodds, 2006;Reisinger et al, 2016;Tatariw et al, 2013) and further influence nitrogen transformation processes (Gruber & Galloway, 2008;Kim et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dissimilatory Nitrate/Nitrite Reduction Processes in River Sediments Across Climatic Gradient: Influences of Biogeochemical Controls and Climatic Temperature Regime

Sardans

Hou

et al. 2019

JGR Biogeosciences

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Dissimilatory nitrate/nitrite reduction processes play an important role in controlling nitrogen loading in river environments. However, the relative importance of climatic temperature regime and biogeochemical controls to dissimilatory nitrate/nitrite reduction processes remains unclear. We used nitrogen isotope tracer approach to investigate geographical variabilities of denitrification, anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox), and dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (DNRA) in river sediments from temperate to tropical climates of China. Denitrification, anammox, and DNRA varied greatly across the climatic gradient, with potential rates of 1.47–25.7, 0.54–3.4, and 0.15–7.17 nmol N g−1 h−1, respectively. Mean measured rates throughout the sampling sites were 9.73 nmol N g−1 h−1 for denitrification, 1.29 nmol N g−1 h−1 for anammox, and 1.61 nmol N g−1 h−1 for DNRA. Denitrification and DNRA rates increased significantly from temperate to tropical climates, while no significantly spatial difference was observed for anammox rates along the climatic gradient. Mean annual temperature, total organic carbon, dissolved organic carbon, pH, NH4+, NO3–, C/N, Fe2+, and functional genes were the crucial factors affecting denitrification, anammox, and DNRA. High dissolved organic carbon and NO3– availability determined nitrogen removal capacity in river sediments. Mean annual temperature was the most important factor explaining the geographical variances of denitrification and DNRA, while the critical predictor of anammox variance was sediment pH along the climatic gradient. Our results highlight that biogeochemical controls and climatic temperature regime are important coregulators affecting the geographical variabilities of dissimilatory nitrate/nitrite reduction processes in river sediments at the continental‐scale variation.

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“…However, within the pilot phase the CFs were applied to assess all processes (inside and outside of Europe). As eutrophying and acidifying emissions are regulated differently worldwide (e.g., strictly within Europe since the 80-ies [43] and hardly or not in emerging countries like China [44]) such an application of European based regionalized CFs is not adequate. As the CFs of the predefined LCIA methods are based on European specific fate models, the amount of emissions emitted into the environment in Europe is considered.…”

Section: Availability Of Inventory Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) Pilot Phase—Comparability over Flexibility?

et al. 2018

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Abstract:The main goal of the European product environmental footprint (PEF) method is to increase comparability of environmental impacts of products within certain product categories by decreasing flexibility and therefore achieving reproducibility of results. Comparability is supposed to be further increased by developing product category specific rules (PEFCRs). The aim of this paper is to evaluate if the main goal of the PEF method has been achieved. This is done by a comprehensive analysis of the PEF guide, the current PEFCR guide, the developed PEFCRs, as well as the insights gained from participating in the pilot phase. The analysis reveals that the PEF method as well as its implementation in PEFCRs are not able to guarantee fair comparability due to shortcomings related to the (1) definition of product performance; (2) definition of the product category; (3) definition and determination of the representative product; (4) modeling of electricity; (5) requirements for the use of secondary data; (6) circular footprint formula; (7) life cycle impact assessment methods; and (8) approach to prioritize impact categories. For some of these shortcomings, recommendations for improvement are provided. This paper demonstrates that the PEF method has to be further improved to guarantee fair comparability.

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Alarming nutrient pollution of Chinese rivers as a result of agricultural transitions

Cited by 180 publications

References 60 publications

International trade of animal feed: its relationships with livestock density and N and P balances at country level

International trade of animal feed: its relationships with livestock density and N and P balances at country level

Dissimilatory Nitrate/Nitrite Reduction Processes in River Sediments Across Climatic Gradient: Influences of Biogeochemical Controls and Climatic Temperature Regime

Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) Pilot Phase—Comparability over Flexibility?

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