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Spatial Variation of Reactive Nitrogen Emissions From China's Croplands Codetermined by Regional Urbanization and Its Feedback to Global Climate Change
Author(s) -
Xu Peng,
Chen Anping,
Houlton Benjamin Z.,
Zeng Zhenzhong,
Wei Song,
Zhao Chenxu,
Lu Haiyan,
Liao Yajun,
Zheng Zhonghua,
Luan Shengji,
Zheng Yi
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2019gl086551
Subject(s) - greenhouse gas , environmental science , urbanization , climate change , atmospheric sciences , china , global warming , climatology , nitrogen , agriculture , per capita , emission intensity , productivity , emission inventory , meteorology , geography , air quality index , chemistry , economics , ecology , geology , ion , population , demography , archaeology , organic chemistry , sociology , economic growth , biology , macroeconomics
Reactive gaseous nitrogen (Ngr) emissions significantly affect Earth's climate system. Disagreement exists, however, over Ngr contributions to short‐ versus long‐term climate forcing, from local to global scales and among different gaseous forms, including NH 3 , NO x , and N 2 O. Here, we provide a comprehensive inventory of Ngr from China's croplands based on a new bottom‐up, mass flow‐based approach integrated with fine‐resolution agricultural activity data and nitrogen emission factors. We demonstrate that China's croplands emit about 8.87 Tg N to the atmosphere in 2014. Across different prefectures, Ngr emission per capita conforms to a “Kuznets curve,” that is, first increases then decreases, along the gradient of increasing urbanization. Ngr emission per gross domestic productivity (GDP) decreases exponentially with increasing urbanization or per capita GDP. Furthermore, climate change impact analyses suggest that the global‐scale warming effect of China's cropland N 2 O emissions dominate over local cooling effects ascribed to its NH 3 and NO x emissions.