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HNU contributes to reducing nitrogen pollution

Updated: 2022-04-20

Professor Ju Xiaotang's team from the College of Tropical Crops of Hainan University published a paper entitled "Using nitrification inhibitors and deep placement to tackle the trade-offs between NH3 and N2O" in the international authoritative journal Global Change Biology on April 16.

This study proposes a solution to tackle the trade-offs between NH3 and N2O in farmland globally, as well as provides scientific proof for the coordinated reduction of reactive nitrogen emissions.

Reducing the emission of NH3 and N2O from agricultural sources has great significance for reducing nitrogen pollution, slowing climate change, as well as safeguarding people's health. However, most of the current research only focuses on the reduction of one of them, with some measures reducing the emission of one gas but increasing the emission of the other gas, resulting in the trade-offs of NH3 and N2O.

Currently, there is still a lack of experimental evidence of these trade-offs, and no solution has been proposed to reduce the emissions of the two gases at the same time.

Ju's team conducted field observations and used data analysis to determine that the deep application of urea with nitrification inhibitors can simultaneously reduce farmland NH3 and N2O emissions, while other fertilization methods and combinations of fertilizer varieties will lead to the trade-offs at different levels.

Through further research, it was discovered that if farmlands globally adopt the technology of the deep application of nitrification inhibitor urea, NH3, and N2O emissions can be significantly reduced, which is of great significance for reducing nitrogen pollution and slowing global warming.

The team has long been engaged in the research of carbon and nitrogen cycle and greenhouse gas emission reduction, covering the occurrence mechanism and prevention and control measures of agricultural non-point source pollution, carbon, and nitrogen transformation, loss methods, as well as sustainable management of the farmland ecosystem

This research result was the 11th scientific research paper published by Ju's team in important international journals like Nature Food, Soil Biology & Biochemistry, Environmental Pollution, and Science of the Total Environment. The team's research results on carbon and nitrogen cycle, greenhouse gases, and non-point source pollution have been widely cited around the world.

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The demonstration of using nitrification inhibitors and deep placement to tackle the trade-offs between NH3 and N2O emissions in croplands globally.