Nitrogen budgets in Europe: a methodology to quantify environmentally relevant flows of reactive nitrogen compounds on a national scale

Winiwarter, Wilfried ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7131-1496; Schäppi, Bettina; Reutimann, Judith; Bach, Martin ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8695-7529; Djukic, Ika ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5144-9321; Dragosits, Ulrike ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9283-6467; Grīnfelde, Inga ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3220-1777; Kanig, Maximilian ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8620-9336; Moldan, Filip ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0425-852X; Suchowska-Kisielewicz, Monika; Geupel, Markus ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9389-5680. 2025 Nitrogen budgets in Europe: a methodology to quantify environmentally relevant flows of reactive nitrogen compounds on a national scale. Environmental Research Letters. 10.1088/1748-9326/ae0da8

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Abstract/Summary

Reactive nitrogen compounds are responsible for multiple negative impacts while they remain in the environment, changing their state and chemical form. Here we develop a methodology to trace these compounds throughout the environment using a stringent concept to describe their fate consistently and comprehensively. Using an individual country as the system scale, the individual flows of reactive nitrogen are characterized between and within eight pools reflecting human society, economic sectors and environmental spheres, also accounting for transboundary flows, to create a national nitrogen budget. The methodology has been devised for implementation by national agencies in conjunction with greenhouse gas or air pollution emission inventories, hence it links closely with the structures and data derived in these contexts. The guiding methodological principle is the mass conservation of reactive nitrogen, implemented as a material flow analysis that systematically describes all flows and stock changes. Embedding results obtained from five European countries demonstrates the feasibility of the approach. The major environmental pathways of reactive nitrogen compounds can be traced from industrial processes and agricultural production, including the agri-food chain, indicating levers for policy interventions. Spatial and temporal benchmarking of the results demonstrates comparisons between countries or over time. While further results of practical implementation are needed to assess overall robustness, the budget approach allows for multiple opportunities of data checks and verification to visualize the uncertainty associated to many input data, such as lacking information on nitrogen contents and specific flows, or the relevance of so-far unaccounted-for stocks of reactive nitrogen. Useful applications have been identified that link nitrogen budgets to impacts on human health as well as on ecosystems and the climate, indicating that developing and using national nitrogen budgets may shape improved and information-led policies.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1088/1748-9326/ae0da8
UKCEH and CEH Sections/Science Areas:	Land-Atmosphere Interactions (2025-)
ISSN:	1748-9326
Additional Information:	Open Access paper - full text available via Official URL link.
Additional Keywords:	nitrogen cascade, environmental pollution, cause-effect relationship, biogeochemical cycle, nitrogen use efficiency
NORA Subject Terms:	Ecology and Environment
Date made live:	06 Oct 2025 08:58 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/540343

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