Nitrogen in its Place

Every so often, a paper turns up that brilliantly simplifies a complex function - in this case, industrial fertilizers' environmental impact, through the lens of the carbon and nitrogen cycles.

Independent academic journal The Conversation recently published a deep dive into the planetary boundary limits of nitrogen fertilizer. Researchers in Science Advances developed the planetary boundary framework to track how human activities are impacting 9 processes critical for maintaining the stability of Earth systems on the whole, as shown below.

The ‘safe operating space’ for life on the planet to continue has been breached in the orange areas shown above, including in the flow of nitrogen into the biosphere. Here’s how it works.