How much fertilizer is too much for the climate?
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EmailHelping farmers around the globe apply more-precise amounts of nitrogen-based fertilizer can help combat climate change, explains MSU AgBioResearch scientist Phil Robertson.
Helping farmers around the globe apply more-precise amounts of nitrogen-based fertilizer can help combat climate change.
In a new study published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Michigan State University researchers provide an improved prediction of nitrogen fertilizer’s contribution to greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural fields.
“Our specific motivation is to learn where to best target agricultural efforts to slow global warming,” said Phil Robertson, director of MSU’s Kellogg Biological Station Long-term Ecological Research Program and senior author of the paper. “Agriculture accounts for 8 to 14 percent of all greenhouse gas production globally. We’re showing how farmers can help to reduce this number by applying nitrogen fertilizer more precisely.”
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