Agricultural Nitrogen Use and its Environmental Implications

Nitrogen fertilizers are the inescapable necessity to enhance agricultural production and to sustain food security. However, their inefficient use accrues from inherent limitations of the crop plants as well as the manner in which N fertilizers are formulated, applied and managed. Excessive accumulation of N in the environment leads to soil acidification, pollution of groundwater and eutrophication of surface water, posing a public health problem as well as ecosystem imbalance. Moreover, the ozone layer depletion and greenhouse effects of NOx gases have global implications. Agricultural Nitrogen Use: Environmental Implications provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary description of problems related to the efficient use of nitrogen in agriculture, in the overall context of the nitrogen cycle, its environmental and human health implications, as well as various approaches to improve N use efficiency. The book is presented in six sections: N Use, Flows and Cycling in Agricultural Systems; N Use Efficiency in Crop Ecosystems; Management Options and Strategies for Enhancing N Use Efficiency; Plant Physiological and Molecular Aspects of Enhancing N Use Efficiency; Role of Legumes and Biofertilizers in Agricultural N Economy; and Environmental and Human Health Implications.