Albert Bleeker

National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) | RIVM · Centre for Environmental Quality (MIL)

More food and energy allow for more people who then require more food and energy, and so it has gone for centuries. At the same time, economic progress leads to a different lifestyle with an increasing demand for energy and food, also accelerating food waste. Fueling this food-energy-population dynamic is an ever-increasing conversion of unreactive...

Following discussions at the 6th International Nitrogen Conference, Kampala (24th–27th November 2013), the delegates agreed the Kampala Statement-for-Action on Reactive Nitrogen in Africa and Globally. The Statement-for-Action highlights the global challenge of aiming for just enough nitrogen: enough to meet human needs for food, fuel and fibre, wh...

Humans have altered the natural nitrogen and phosphorus biogeochemical cycles by the massive input of fertilizers to the agricultural system to boost production. As a result a large amount of nitrogen and phosphorus have been mobilised and delivered to the environment, creating threats to aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem functioning and human heal...

Food production and power generation have increased to feed growing populations and to keep pace with economic development, leading to major human alteration of the global nitrogen (N) cycle. The result is a global challenge, with many regions having ‘too much’ or ‘too little’ nitrogen. As di-nitrogen (N2) in the atmosphere, nitrogen is one of the...

This volume provides a unique collection of contributions addressing both the ‘too much’ and ‘too little’ sides of the nitrogen story. Building on analyses started at the 6th International Nitrogen Conference, Kampala, the book explores the idea of ‘just enough nitrogen’: sufficient for sustainable food production, but not so much as to lead to uns...

Het rapport Duurzame gewasbescherming nader beschouwd beschrijft de tussenevaluatie van de nota Gezonde Groei, Duurzame Oogst over de periode 2013-2018. In de nota heeft de overheid het gewasbeschermingsbeleid voor de periode 2013 – 2023 vastgelegd. De conclusie van de tussenevaluatie is dat er de afgelopen 5 jaar op veel terreinen winst is geboekt...

Reducing nitrogen pollution across the food chain requires the use of clear and comprehensive indicators to track and manage losses. The challenge is to derive an easy-to-use robust nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) indicator for entire food systems to help support policy development, monitor progress and inform consumers. Based on a comparison of four...

Biosphere carbon sinks are crucial for reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentration to mitigate global warming, but are substantially affected by the input of reactive nitrogen (Nr). Although the effects of anthropogenic CO2 emission and nitrogen deposition (indicated by Nr emission to atmosphere) on carbon sink have been studied, it is...

In peatland ecosystems, plant communities mediate a globally significant carbon store. The effects of global environmental change on plant assemblages are expected to be a factor in determining how ecosystem functions such as carbon uptake will respond. Using vegetation data from 56 Sphagnum-dominated peat bogs across Europe, we show that in these...

Once upon a time there was enough naturally occurring nitrogen (N) to provide food for the world's peoples. Then there was not in the western regions. Now there is due to industrially produced NH3. But this transition from plenty, to scarcity, to plenty has come with a tremendous environmental cost. This paper provides an historical overview of the...

One of the 'grand challenges' of this age is the anthropogenic impact exerted on the nitrogen cycle. Issues of concern range from an excess of fixed nitrogen resulting in environmental pressures for some regions, while for other regions insufficient fixed nitrogen affects food security and may lead to health risks. To address these issues, nitrogen...

Nitrogen (N) management presents a sustainability dilemma: N is strongly linked to energy and food production, but excess reactive N causes environmental pollution. The N footprint is an indicator that quantifies reactive N losses to the environment from consumption and production of food and the use of energy. The average per capita N footprint (c...

Humanity’s enormous and increasing demand for the planet’s natural resources has resulted in a dramatic loss of biodiversity. Many of the pressures and underlying causes affecting ecosystems interact at a variety of scales from local to global. Trying to reverse or prevent further detrimental effects on nature within such a complex web of interdepe...

China’s aquaculture industry accounts for the largest share of the world’s fishery production, and provides a principal source of protein for the nation’s booming population. However, the environmental effects of the nutrient loadings produced by this industry have not been systematically studied or reviewed. Few quantitative estimates exist for nu...

It is now clear that the nitrogen problem is one of the most pressing environmental issues that we face. But in spite of the enormity of our influence on the N cycle and consequent implications for the environment and for human well-being, there is surprisingly little attention paid to the issue. While biodiversity loss and climate change have spaw...

The human alteration of the nitrogen cycle has evolved from minimal in the mid-19th century to extensive in the present time. The consequences to human and environmental health are significant. While much attention has been given to the extent and impacts of the alteration, little attention has been given to those entities (i.e., consumers, institu...

Atmospheric deposition to forests has been monitored within the International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP Forests) with sampling and analyses of bulk precipitation and throughfall at several hundred forested plots for more than 15 years. The current deposition of inorganic nitrogen (ni...

Ecosystem services are defined as the ecological and socio-economic value of goods and services provided by natural and semi-natural ecosystems. Ecosystem services are being impacted by many human induced stresses, one of them being nitrogen (N) deposition and its interactions with other pollutants and climate change. It is concluded that N directl...

Reduction in the species richness of acid grasslands along a gradient of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has previously been demonstrated in the UK (Stevens, Dise, Mountford, Gowing, Science 303:1876–1879, 2004). Further surveys of acid grasslands in the UK confirm this relationship. This chapter reports an examination of the relationship acros...

We aimed to answer the question of whether the species richness and composition of calcareous grasslands in North-western Germany had changed over the last 70 years as a result of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition. In total, 1186 plots of Festuco-Brometea (alliance Bromion erecti) grasslands from the sub-oceanic regions of the country were compil...

Reduction in the species richness of acid grasslands along a gradient of atmospheric nitrogen (N) deposition has previously been demonstrated in the UK (Stevens, Dise, Mountford, Gowing, Science 303:1876–1879, 2004). Further surveys of acid grasslands in the UK confirm this relationship. This chapter reports an examination of the relationship acros...

Emissions of ammonia have been demonstrated to play a role in the formation of airborne fine particulate matter, by reacting with gaseous emissions of sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen. Agriculture emits ammonia to the atmosphere, and atmospheric processes can transport the particulate form of ammonium long distances. Fertilizer use-related em...

The demand for more food is increasing fertilizer and land use, and the demand for more energy is increasing fossil fuel combustion, leading to enhanced losses of reactive nitrogen (Nr) to the environment. Many thresholds for human and ecosystem health have been exceeded owing to Nr pollution, including those for drinking water (nitrates), air qual...

Nitrogen over the ages! It was discovered in the eighteenth century. The following century, its importance in agriculture was documented and the basic components of its cycle were elucidated. In the twentieth century, a process to provide an inexhaustible supply of reactive N (Nr; all N species except N2) for agricultural, industrial and military u...

Existing descriptions of bi-directional ammonia (NH3) land-atmosphere exchange incorporate temperature and moisture controls, and are beginning to be used in regional chemical transport models. However, such models have typically applied simpler emission factors to upscale the main NH3 emission terms. While this approach has successfully simulated...

De leden van de Vereniging ‘Noardlike Fryske Wâlden’, grotendeels melkveehouders, willen graag zelf sturen op milieudoelen in de Noordelijke Friese Wouden. Hierbij willen zij collectief op milieudoelstellingen worden afgerekend, in plaats van individueel te moeten voldoen aan generieke middelvoorschriften. Twee zaken zijn noodzakelijk voor deze vor...

An analysis reveals the huge impact of human activity on the nitrogen cycle in China. With global use of Earth's resources rising per head, the findings call for a re-evaluation of the consumption patterns of developed societies. See Letter p.459

In Europe and, increasingly, the rest of the world, the key policy tool for the control of air pollution is the critical load, a level of pollution below which there are no known significant harmful effects on the environment. Critical loads are used to map sensitive regions and habitats, permit individual polluting activities, and frame internatio...

The message of this overview is that everyone stands to benefit from nutrients and that everyone can make a contribution to promote sustainable production and use of nutrients. Whether we live in a part of the world with too much or too little nutrients, our daily decisions can make a difference. Without swift and collective action, the next genera...

Reactive nitrogen (Nr) compounds have different fates in the atmosphere due to differences in the governing processes of physical transport, deposition and chemical transformation. Nr compounds addressed here include reduced nitrogen (NHx: ammonia (NH3) and its reaction product ammonium (NH4+)), oxidized nitrogen (NOy: nitrogen monoxide (NO) +; nit...

Improved management of nitrogen (N) in agriculture is necessary to achieve a sustainable balance between the production of food and other biomass, and the unwanted effects of N on water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity deterioration and human health. To analyse farm N-losses and the complex interactions within farming systems, effi...

Six agricultural landscapes in Poland (PL), the Netherlands (NL), France (FR), Italy (IT), Scotland (UK) and Denmark (DK) were studied, and a common method was developed for undertaking farm inventories and the derivation of farm nitrogen (N) balances and N surplus from the in total 222 farms and 11 440 ha of farmland. In all landscapes, a large va...

Reactive nitrogen (Nr) compounds have different fates in the atmosphere due to differences in governing processes of physical transport, deposition and chemical transformation. Nr compounds addressed here include reduced nitrogen (NHx: ammonia (NH3) and its reaction product ammonium (NH4+)), oxidized nitrogen (NOy: nitrogen monoxide (NO) + nitrogen...

InGOS is an EU funded IA (Integrating Activities) project targeted at improving and extending the European observation capacity for non-CO2 greenhouse gases. The project will run from October 2011 to September 2015. InGOS is coordinated by ECN and involves 34 partners from 15 countries. There is a big need to support and integrate the observing cap...

The human use of reactive nitrogen (Nr) in the environment has profound beneficial and detrimental impacts on all people. Its beneficial impacts result from food production and industrial application. The detrimental impacts occur because most of the Nr used in food production and the entire amount of Nr formed during fossil fuel combustion are los...

The main goal of this study was to detect trends in deposition at ICP Forests Level II sites (with ICP Forests and pre-ICP Forests data) and to investigate possible causes. The specific objectives were to:  determine the bulk and throughfall deposition of sulphate and inorganic nitrogen (nitrate and ammonium) and its trends  investigate the influ...

Highlights ► Humans have doubled levels of reactive nitrogen in circulation, largely as a result of fertilizer application and fossil fuel burning. ► Initial quantifications of the effect of Nr on climate show that there is a small net cooling effect of −0.24 W m−2, with high uncertainty. ► The many complex warming and cooling interactions between...

There is a growing evidence base demonstrating that atmospheric nitrogen deposition presents a threat to biodiversity and ecosystem function in acid grasslands in Western Europe. Here, we report the findings of a workshop held for European policy makers to assess the perceived importance of reactive nitrogen deposition for grassland conservation, i...

Presenting the first continental-scale assessment of reactive nitrogen in the environment, this book sets the related environmental problems in context by providing a multidisciplinary introduction to the nitrogen cycle processes. Issues of upscaling from farm plot and city to national and continental scales are addressed in detail with emphasis on...

Increased public and institutional awareness of both the benefi ts and threats of nitrogen has the potential to greatly increase the effi cacy • of nitrogen policy. Insuffi cient recognition of the fi nancial, behavioural and cultural barriers to achieving an optimal nitrogen future risks policy antago- • nisms and failure. Here we examine some of...

Presenting the first continental-scale assessment of reactive nitrogen in the environment, this book sets the related environmental problems in context by providing a multidisciplinary introduction to the nitrogen cycle processes. Issues of upscaling from farm plot and city to national and continental scales are addressed in detail with emphasis on...

Presenting the first continental-scale assessment of reactive nitrogen in the environment, this book sets the related environmental problems in context by providing a multidisciplinary introduction to the nitrogen cycle processes. Issues of upscaling from farm plot and city to national and continental scales are addressed in detail with emphasis on...

Europe, and especially the European Union (EU), has many governmental policy measures aimed at decreasing unwanted reactive nitrogen (N_r) emissions from combustion, agriculture and urban wastes. Many of these policy measures have an "effects-based approach", and focus on single N_r compounds, single sectors and either on air or waters. This chap...

Presenting the first continental-scale assessment of reactive nitrogen in the environment, this book sets the related environmental problems in context by providing a multidisciplinary introduction to the nitrogen cycle processes. Issues of upscaling from farm plot and city to national and continental scales are addressed in detail with emphasis on...

Presenting the first continental-scale assessment of reactive nitrogen in the environment, this book sets the related environmental problems in context by providing a multidisciplinary introduction to the nitrogen cycle processes. Issues of upscaling from farm plot and city to national and continental scales are addressed in detail with emphasis on...

Presenting the first continental-scale assessment of reactive nitrogen in the environment, this book sets the related environmental problems in context by providing a multidisciplinary introduction to the nitrogen cycle processes. Issues of upscaling from farm plot and city to national and continental scales are addressed in detail with emphasis on...

Within a rural landscape there are flows of reactive nitrogen (Nr) through and between the soil, vegetation, atmosphere and hydrological systems as well as transfer as a result of agricultural activities. Measurements of these flows and transfers have generally been limited to individual media (e.g., hydrological flows) or the interface between two...

Question: Which environmental variables affect floristic species composition of acid grasslands in the Atlantic biogeographic region of Europe along a gradient of atmospheric N deposition?Location: Transect across the Atlantic biogeographic region of Europe including Ireland, Great Britain, Isle of Man, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, No...

Inferential models have long been used to determine pollutant dry deposition to ecosystems from measurements of air concentrations and as part of national and regional atmospheric chemistry and transport models, and yet models still suffer very large uncertainties. An inferential network of 55 sites throughout Europe for atmospheric reactive nitrog...

While it is well established that ecosystems display strong responses to elevated nitrogen deposition, the importance of the ratio between the dominant forms of deposited nitrogen (NH(x) and NO(y)) in determining ecosystem response is poorly understood. As large changes in the ratio of oxidised and reduced nitrogen inputs are occurring, this oversi...

Transport-chemistry models are useful and well-used tools in the environmental assessment of impacts of atmospheric N on Natura 2000 sites. Impacts arise from two groups of reactive nitrogen compounds: reduced nitrogen compounds (NH3 and its reaction product NH4+) and oxidised nitrogen compounds (NO, NO2 and their reaction products). Often the cont...

Dit rapport geeft een overzicht en beschrijving van de activiteiten die in 2009 en 2010 in Nederland zijn uitgevoerd in het kader van het Life+ project Future of Forest Monitoring (FutMon). FutMon is het vervolg op Forest Focus en wordt gecoördineerd door het Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute in Hamburg en de resultaten worden gebruik door ICP F...

Stikstof is een belangrijke voorwaarde voor productieve landbouw en daarmee voor de voeding van de wereldbevolking. Stikstof uit de landbouw, de industrie en het verkeer veroorzaakt echter schade aan volksgezondheid en natuur. De totale jaarlijkse maatschappelijke schade in de EU27 wordt geschat op 70-320 miljard euro, of 150-750 euro per inwoner....