Changes in agricultural nitrogen (N) balance of OECD countries and its causes and impacts

verfasst von

Ji Yeon Lim, Hyeon Ji Song, Gil Won Kim, Pil Joo Kim

Abstract

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) developed soil surface nutrient balance and made it mandatory for member countries to report annual nutrient budgets since 1990. This study aimed to evaluate the status of nitrogen (N) management in member countries and to figure out why N surplus levels differ across countries and how they relate to other agri-environmental indicators, by analyzing the N budgets from 35 OECD countries over the last 30 years. Of the three factors determining N balance (agricultural land area, N input, and N output), agricultural land area decreased in most OECD countries, negatively affecting N balance reduction. However, OECD's average N balance highly decreased from 91 to 46 kg ha⁻¹ over the last 30 years due to the decrease in N input through inorganic fertilizers and manure, especially in EU countries with high N input levels, while N output did not meaningfully change. In comparison, in Japan and Korea, the N balance slightly increased and they became the highest N balance country recently. A higher N balance led to lower N use efficiency and higher ammonia (NH₃) and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emission intensities. More densely populated countries with smaller agricultural land per capita (ranging from 0.03 to 0.47 ha capita⁻¹) showed a higher N balance (228–80 kg ha⁻¹), presumably due to higher N input for more agricultural production on limited land. The most densely populated countries among OECD members (Belgium, the Netherlands, Korea, and Japan) had similar N input levels. However, two EU countries had much higher N output than two Asian countries due to higher pasture production, which led to a lower N balance and higher N use efficiency. Therefore, highly populated countries with small arable land areas per capita might need multilateral efforts to alleviate agricultural N balance.

Organisationseinheit(en)

Institut für Mikrobiologie

Externe Organisation(en)

Gyeongsang National University

Typ

Artikel

Journal

Journal of Environmental Management

Band

351

Anzahl der Seiten

9

ISSN

0301-4797

Publikationsdatum

02.2024

Publikationsstatus

Veröffentlicht

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Environmental engineering, Abfallwirtschaft und -entsorgung, Management, Monitoring, Politik und Recht

Ziele für nachhaltige Entwicklung

SDG 2 – Kein Hunger

Elektronische Version(en)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.119853 (Zugang: Geschlossen)