Abstract
Human activities reshape the global nitrogen (N) cycle and affect environment and human health through reactive nitrogen (Nr) loss during production and consumption. In urbanized regions, the N cycle is greatly mediated by complex interactions between human and natural factors. However, the variations in sources, magnitude, spatiotemporal patterns and drivers of Nr flows remain unclear. Here we show by model simulations, anthropogenic perturbations not only intensify Nr input to sustain increasing demands for production and consumption in Guangzhou city, China, but also greatly change the Nr distribution pattern in the urban system, showing a substantial Nr enrichment in the atmosphere and a relatively low retention capacity of Nr in the terrestrial system. Our results highlight the strong anthropogenic effect of urban systems on the N cycle to suggest sustainable human activity changes to harmonize the relationship between Nr behaviors and human drivers.
Highlights
Human activities reshape the global nitrogen (N) cycle and affect environment and human health through reactive nitrogen (Nr) loss during production and consumption
We find that Nr input into the urban system is manifested in artificial intensification and the change of the input structure
The substantial increase in Nr creation by Ncontained production in other locations was caused by the urban system
Summary
Human activities reshape the global nitrogen (N) cycle and affect environment and human health through reactive nitrogen (Nr) loss during production and consumption. Nr release into the environment has had negative effects on both the ecosystem and human health[10], such as stratospheric ozone depletion[11], acid rain[12], water eutrophication[11,12], biodiversity loss[13], and human heath impairment[11] The former N budget has been studied at the global[14], national[15] and regional[16,17] levels. In urban regions, the N cycle is greatly mediated by complex interactions between human and natural factors, resulting in variations in sources, magnitude and spatiotemporal patterns[18,19]. Studies investigating the impact of human interference on the N cycle at the national level or watershed scale could ignore some sudden hot spots and new pollution sources[15,25], such as the recent rapid growth of industrial N emissions in urban systems[26], which could amount to a missed opportunity to develop abatement management strategies targeting these sources of pollution
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