Modification of exploration of long‐term nutrient trajectories for nitrogen (ELEMeNT-N) model to quantify legacy nitrogen dynamics in a typical watershed of eastern China

Jia, Zhenhong; Wei, Yinghuai; Wu, K.; Wu, Hao; Jiao, Xinyi; Hu, Mingpeng; Chen, Dingjiang

doi:10.1088/1748-9326/acd1a2

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Ballard et al (2019) suggested that recovery time scales simulated by ELEMeNT in the Mississippi River Basin are highly uncertain. Additionally, ELEMeNT outputs for the Mississippi River Basin seem to greatly deviate from other ELEMeNT applications in the Chesapeake Bay and China (Chang et al, 2021; Zhou et al, 2023). Generally, DLEM‐simulated N results are squaring more with the 5–15 year response time reported by Chang et al (2021), Dupas et al (2020), and Stackpoole et al (2021).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 89%

Soil legacy nutrients contribute to the decreasing stoichiometric ratio of N and P loading from the Mississippi River Basin

Bian,

Tian,

Pan

et al. 2023

Global Change Biology

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Human‐induced nitrogen–phosphorus (N, P) imbalance in terrestrial ecosystems can lead to disproportionate N and P loading to aquatic ecosystems, subsequently shifting the elemental ratio in estuaries and coastal oceans and impacting both the structure and functioning of aquatic ecosystems. The N:P ratio of nutrient loading to the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River Basin increased before the late 1980s driven by the enhanced usage of N fertilizer over P fertilizer, whereafter the N:P loading ratio started to decrease although the N:P ratio of fertilizer application did not exhibit a similar trend. Here, we hypothesize that different release rates of soil legacy nutrients might contribute to the decreasing N:P loading ratio. Our study used a data‐model integration framework to evaluate N and P dynamics and the potential for long‐term accumulation or release of internal soil nutrient legacy stores to alter the ratio of N and P transported down the rivers. We show that the longer residence time of P in terrestrial ecosystems results in a much slower release of P to coastal oceans than N. If contemporary nutrient sources were reduced or suspended, P loading sustained by soil legacy P would decrease much slower than that of N, causing a decrease in the N and P loading ratio. The longer residence time of P in terrestrial ecosystems and the increasingly important role of soil legacy nutrients as a loading source may explain the decreasing N:P loading ratio in the Mississippi River Basin. Our study underscores a promising prospect for N loading control and the urgency to integrate soil P legacy into sustainable nutrient management strategies for aquatic ecosystem health and water security.

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