U.S. Department of Agriculture: Agricultural Research Service, Lincoln, Nebraska

 

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2008

Comments

Published in Nitrogen in the Environment: Sources, Problems, and Management, Second edition, ed. J. L. Hatfield & R. F. Follett (Amsterdam, Boston, et al.: Academic Press/Elsevier, 2008).

“Copyright protection is not available for any work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person's official duties.”
United States Code, Title 17, §105.

Abstract

Nitrogen (N) along with carbon and oxygen is the most complex and crucial of the elements essential for life. Supplementing grain and grass forage crops with organic and inorganic N fertilizers has long been recognized as a key to improving crop yields and economic returns. Globally. N fertilizer is largely used for cereal grain production and accounts for an estimated 40(1r of the increase in per capita food production in the past 50 years (Mosier et al.. 200 I). Smil (200 I) estimates that N fertilizer supplies up to 40% of the world's dietary protein and dependence on N from the Haber-Bosch process will increase in the future. Nitrogen compounds also have been recognized for their many potential adverse impacts on the environment and health (Keeney. 2002).

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