Sustainable management of riverine N2O emission baselines

Date published

2025-02-01

Free to read from

2025-03-20

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Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Oxford University Press (OUP)

Department

Type

Article

ISSN

2095-5138

Format

Citation

Wang S, Zhi W, Li S, et al., (2025) Sustainable management of riverine N2O emission baselines. National Science Review, Volume 12, Issue 2, February 2025, Article number nwae458

Abstract

The riverine N2O fluxes are assumed to linearly increase with nitrate loading. However, this linear relationship with a uniform EF5r is poorly constrained, which impedes the N2O estimation and mitigation. Our meta-analysis discovered a universal N2O emission baseline (EF5r = k/[NO3−], k = 0.02) for natural rivers. Anthropogenic impacts caused an overall increase in baselines and the emergence of hotspots, which constitute two typical patterns of anthropogenic sources. The k values of agricultural and urban rivers increased to 0.09 and 0.05, respectively, with 11% and 14% of points becoming N2O hotspots. Priority control of organic and NH4+ pollution could eliminate hotspots and reduce emissions by 51.6% and 63.7%, respectively. Further restoration of baseline emissions on nitrate removal is a long-term challenge considering population growth and declining unit benefits (ΔN-N2O/N-NO3−). The discovery of EF lines emphasized the importance of targeting hotspots and managing baseline emissions sustainably to balance social and environmental benefits.

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Software Description

Software Language

Github

Keywords

nitrous oxide, emission factor, hotspots, sustainable, greenhouse gases, 41 Environmental Sciences, 4104 Environmental Management, emission factor, greenhouse gases, hotspots, nitrous oxide, sustainable

DOI

Rights

Attribution 4.0 International

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Relationships

Resources

Funder/s

National Natural Science Foundation of China
This work was supported by the Key Projects of the Joint Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U22A20557), the Autonomous Region Collaborative Innovation Center for Integrated Management of Water Resources and Water Environment in the Inner Mongolia Reaches of the Yellow River, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52379084).