TY - JOUR

T1 - Assessing groundwater denitrification spatially is the key to targeted agricultural nitrogen regulation

AU - Hansen, Birgitte

AU - Aamand, Jens

AU - Blicher-Mathiesen, Gitte

AU - Christiansen, Anders V.

AU - Claes, Niels

AU - Dalgaard, Tommy

AU - Frederiksen, Rasmus R.

AU - Jacobsen, Brian H.

AU - Jakobsen, Rasmus

AU - Kallesøe, Anders

AU - Kim, Hyojin

AU - Koch, Julian

AU - Møller, Ingelise

AU - Madsen, Rasmus B.

AU - Schaper, Stefan

AU - Sandersen, Peter B.E.

AU - Voutchkova, Denitza D.

AU - Wiborg, Irene

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2024.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - Globally, food production for an ever-growing population is a well-known threat to the environment due to losses of excess reactive nitrogen (N) from agriculture. Since the 1980s, many countries of the Global North, such as Denmark, have successfully combatted N pollution in the aquatic environment by regulation and introduction of national agricultural one-size-fits-all mitigation measures. Despite this success, further reduction of the N load is required to meet the EU water directives demands, and implementation of additional targeted N regulation of agriculture has scientifically and politically been found to be a way forward. In this paper, we present a comprehensive concept to make future targeted N regulation successful environmentally and economically. The concept focus is on how and where to establish detailed maps of the groundwater denitrification potential (N retention) in areas, such as Denmark, covered by Quaternary deposits. Quaternary deposits are abundant in many parts of the world, and often feature very complex geological and geochemical architectures. We show that this subsurface complexity results in large local differences in groundwater N retention. Prioritization of the most complex areas for implementation of the new concept can be a cost-efficient way to achieve lower N impact on the aquatic environment.

AB - Globally, food production for an ever-growing population is a well-known threat to the environment due to losses of excess reactive nitrogen (N) from agriculture. Since the 1980s, many countries of the Global North, such as Denmark, have successfully combatted N pollution in the aquatic environment by regulation and introduction of national agricultural one-size-fits-all mitigation measures. Despite this success, further reduction of the N load is required to meet the EU water directives demands, and implementation of additional targeted N regulation of agriculture has scientifically and politically been found to be a way forward. In this paper, we present a comprehensive concept to make future targeted N regulation successful environmentally and economically. The concept focus is on how and where to establish detailed maps of the groundwater denitrification potential (N retention) in areas, such as Denmark, covered by Quaternary deposits. Quaternary deposits are abundant in many parts of the world, and often feature very complex geological and geochemical architectures. We show that this subsurface complexity results in large local differences in groundwater N retention. Prioritization of the most complex areas for implementation of the new concept can be a cost-efficient way to achieve lower N impact on the aquatic environment.

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-024-55984-9

DO - 10.1038/s41598-024-55984-9

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 38448554

AN - SCOPUS:85187126302

VL - 14

JO - Scientific Reports

JF - Scientific Reports

SN - 2045-2322

M1 - 5538

ER -