Estimation of nitrogen budgets for contrasting catchments at the landscape scale

Vogt, E.; Braban, C.F.; Dragosits, U.; Theobald, M.R.; Billett, M.F.; Dore, A.J.; Tang, Y.S.; van Dijk, N.; Rees, R.M.; McDonald, C.; Murray, S.; Skiba, U.M.; Sutton, M.A.. 2012 Estimation of nitrogen budgets for contrasting catchments at the landscape scale. Biogeosciences Discussions, 9 (7). 8989-9028. 10.5194/bgd-9-8989-2012

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract/Summary

A comprehensive assessment of nitrogen (N) flows at the landscape scale is fundamental to understand spatial interactions in the N cascade and to inform the development of locally optimised N management strategies. To explore this interactions, complete N budgets were estimated for two contrasting hydrological catchments (dominated by agricultural grassland vs. semi-natural peat-dominated moorland), forming part of an intensively studied landscape in southern Scotland. Local scale atmospheric dispersion modelling and detailed farm and field inventories provided high resolution estimations of input fluxes. Agricultural inputs (i.e. grazing excreta, organic and synthetic fertiliser) accounted for most of the catchment N inputs with 80% in the grassland and 57% in the moorland catchment, while atmospheric deposition made a significant contribution, particularly in the moorland catchment with 38% of the N inputs. The estimated catchment N budgets highlighted areas of key uncertainty, particularly N2 emissions from denitrification and stream N export. The resulting N balances suggest that the study catchments have a limited capacity to store N within soils, vegetation and groundwater. The "catchment N retention", i.e. the amount of N which is either stored within the catchment or lost through atmospheric emissions, was estimated to be 3% of the net anthropogenic input in the moorland and 55% in the grassland catchment. These values contrast with regional scale estimates: catchment retentions of net anthropogenic input estimated within Europe at the regional scale range from 50% to 90% with an average of 82% (Billen et al., 2011). This study emphasises the need for detailed budget analyses to identify the N status of European landscapes.

Item Type:	Article
Identification Number/DOI:	10.5194/bgd-9-8989-2012
Programmes:	CEH Topics & Objectives 2009 onwards > Biogeochemistry
CEH Sections:	Billett
ISSN:	1810-6277
Additional Information:	Open Access paper - click on Official URL link for full text
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment Hydrology Agriculture and Soil Science Atmospheric Sciences
Date made live:	22 Oct 2012 10:27
URI:	http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/19955

Actions (login required)

View Item