Spatial Variation of Reactive Nitrogen Emissions From China's Croplands Codetermined by Regional Urbanization and Its Feedback to Global Climate Change

Abstract

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 NH3, NOx, and N2O. 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 N2O emissions dominate over local cooling effects ascribed to its NH3 and NOx emissions.