HOTSPOTS OF NUTRIENT LOSSES TO AIR AND WATER: AN INTEGRATED MODELING APPROACH FOR EUROPEAN RIVER BASINS

Highlights

● A new MARINA-Nutrients model was developed to assess air and water pollution in Europe.

● Agriculture is responsible for 55% of N and sewage for 67% of P in rivers.

● Almost two-fifths of reactive N emissions to air are from animal housing and storage.

● Nearly a third of the basin area produces over half of N emissions to air and nutrients in rivers.

● Over 25% of river export of N ends up in the Atlantic Ocean and P in the Mediterranean Sea.

Abstract

Nutrient pollution of air and water is a persistent problem in Europe. However, the pollution sources are often analyzed separately, preventing the formulation of integrative solutions. This study aimed to quantify the contribution of agriculture to air, river and coastal water pollution by nutrients. A new MARINA-Nutrients model was developed for Europe to calculate inputs of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) to land and rivers, N emissions to air, and nutrient export to seas by river basins. Under current practice, inputs of N and P to land were 34.4 and 1.8 Tg·yr^–1, respectively. However, only 12% of N and 3% of P reached the rivers. Agriculture was responsible for 55% of N and sewage for 67% of P in rivers. Reactive N emissions to air from agriculture were calculated at 4.0 Tg·yr^–1. Almost two-fifths of N emissions to air were from animal housing and storage. Nearly a third of the basin area was considered as pollution hotspots and generated over half of N emissions to air and nutrient pollution in rivers. Over 25% of river export of N ended up in the Atlantic Ocean and of P in the Mediterranean Sea. These results could support environmental policies to reduce both air and water pollution simultaneously, and avoid pollution swapping.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

agriculture / air-water modeling / European rivers / nutrient pollution / sewage systems / source attribution

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Supplementary materials

The online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2023526 contains supplementary materials (Texts 1–2; Fig. S1; Tables S1–S13). In addition, the main model results supporting Fig.2–Fig.6 generated in this study have been deposited in the DANS Easy Repository under the Digital Object Identifier: 10.17026/dans-zg6-7wz4.

Acknowledgements

This study has been developed within the framework of the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement No. 860127 (FertiCycle project). The authors acknowledge funding from the Nutri2Cycle project from the European Union Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation under Grant Agreement No. 773682. In particular, the authors would like to thank Mengru Wang for providing data on the MARINA-Nutrients (Global, version 1.0 with MAgPIE data) model results for the year 2010. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions on how to improve this paper.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Aslıhan Ural-Janssen, Carolien Kroeze, Jan Peter Lesschen, Erik Meers, Peter J.T.M. van Puijenbroek, and Maryna Strokal declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2023. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)