Assessing and Addressing Atmospheric Nitrogen Impacts on Natura 2000 Sites in Wales (AAANIS): project report

The aim of this work is to assist in developing an approach to address the impact of nitrogen deposition on Natura 2000 sites in Wales

Inventory of ammonia emissions from UK agriculture 2009

The National Ammonia Reduction Strategy Evaluation System (NARSES) model (spreadsheet version) was used to estimate ammonia (NH3) emissions from UK agriculture for the year 2009. Year-specific livestock numbers and fertiliser N use were added for 2009 and revised for previous years. The estimate for 2009 was 231.8 kt NH3, representing a 2.3 kt increase from the previously submitted estimate for 2008. Backward and forward projections using the 2009 model structure gave estimates of 317, 245 and 244 kt NH3 for the years 1990, 2010 and 2020, respectively. This inventory reports emission from livestock agriculture and from nitrogen fertilisers applied to agricultural land. There are a number of other minor sources reported as ‘agriculture’ in the total UK emission inventory, including horses not kept on agricultural holdings, emissions from composting and domestic fertiliser use

Site categorisation for nitrogen measures

Final report to Natural England on project IPENS-049

Modelling and mapping UK emissions of ammonia, methane and nitrous oxide from agriculture, nature, waste disposal and other miscellaneous sources for 2013

A contribution to the UK National Atmospheric Emission Inventory and Greenhouse Gas Inventory

UK emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide

Signatories of the Kyoto Protocol are obliged to submit annual accounts of their anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, which include nitrous oxide (N2O). Emissions from the sectors industry (3.8 Gg), energy (14.4 Gg), agriculture (86.8 Gg), wastewater (4.4 Gg), land use, land-use change and forestry (2.1 Gg) can be calculated by multiplying activity data (i.e. amount of fertilizer applied, animal numbers) with simple emission factors (Tier 1 approach), which are generally applied across wide geographical regions. The agricultural sector is the largest anthropogenic source of N2O in many countries and responsible for 75 per cent of UK N2O emissions. Microbial N2O production in nitrogen-fertilized soils (27.6 Gg), nitrogen-enriched waters (24.2 Gg) and manure storage systems (6.4 Gg) dominate agricultural emission budgets. For the agricultural sector, the Tier 1 emission factor approach is too simplistic to reflect local variations in climate, ecosystems and management, and is unable to take into account some of the mitigation strategies applied. This paper reviews deviations of observed emissions from those calculated using the simple emission factor approach for all anthropogenic sectors, briefly discusses the need to adopt specific emission factors that reflect regional variability in climate, soil type and management, and explains how bottom-up emission inventories can be verified by top-down modelling

Estimation of nitrogen budgets for contrasting catchments at the landscape scale

A comprehensive assessment of nitrogen (N) flows at the landscape scale is fundamental to understand spatial interactions in the N cascade and to inform the development of locally optimised N management strategies. To explore these interactions, complete N budgets were estimated for two contrasting hydrological catchments (dominated by agricultural grassland vs. semi-natural peat-dominated moorland), forming part of an intensively studied landscape in southern Scotland. Local scale atmospheric dispersion modelling and detailed farm and field inventories provided high resolution estimations of input fluxes. Direct agricultural inputs (i.e. grazing excreta, N<sub>2</sub> fixation, organic and synthetic fertiliser) accounted for most of the catchment N inputs, representing 82% in the grassland and 62% in the moorland catchment, while atmospheric deposition made a significant contribution, particularly in the moorland catchment, contributing 38% of the N inputs. The estimated catchment N budgets highlighted areas of key uncertainty, particularly N<sub>2</sub> exchange and stream N export. The resulting N balances suggest that the study catchments have a limited capacity to store N within soils, vegetation and groundwater. The "catchment N retention", i.e. the amount of N which is either stored within the catchment or lost through atmospheric emissions, was estimated to be 13% of the net anthropogenic input in the moorland and 61% in the grassland catchment. These values contrast with regional scale estimates: Catchment retentions of net anthropogenic input estimated within Europe at the regional scale range from 50% to 90%, with an average of 82% (Billen et al., 2011). This study emphasises the need for detailed budget analyses to identify the N status of European landscapes

UK informative inventory report (1990 to 2013)

This is the 10th Informative Inventory Report (IIR) from the UK National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory (NAEI) Programme. The report is compiled to accompany the UK’s 2015 data submission under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) and contains detailed information on annual emission estimates of air quality pollutants by source in the UK from 1990 onwards

Nitrogen deposition in Northern Ireland and import/export of N deposition across the UK.

Atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition represents a significant threat to sensitive habitats and species in the United Kingdom, with excessive N supply leading to declines in many important species of high conservation value, at the expense of fast-growing species that can exploit the additional nitrogen supply. Atmospheric N is produced from emissions of ammonia (NH3, mainly from agricultural sources) and nitrogen oxides (NOx, mainly from transport, industry, power generation and other combustion sources). This report aims to quantify and compare N deposition to land in NI from sources within NI and overseas (in the UK, Republic of Ireland, Shipping and the rest of Europe) to the amount of N deposition produced from NI sources that is deposited overseas. Estimating the likely source of N deposition received by NI will allow enable policy makers to assess how effective national N mitigation measures are likely to be. This study shows that Northern Ireland exports more atmospheric N deposition to the rest of the UK than it receives (from the UK and elsewhere). The amount of N originating from sources within NI and deposited within NI is mostly from NH3 emission sources (92%), with only 8% due to NOx emissions. These atmospheric N inputs produced within the country are the fraction that can be tackled with NI-internal policy development. When taking into account atmospheric N input from all sources (NI-internal and beyond), a substantial proportion of the NHx deposition is from sources within NI, while NOx deposition may be harder to tackle with a substantial proportion coming from the UK, Republic of Ireland and the rest of Europe, including shipping