Ammonia emissions from agricultural products at high resolution across Europe

Abstract

Ammonia (NH3) has significant adverse effects on biodiversity, human and ecosystem health. More than 90% of European NH3 emissions originate from manure and synthetic fertilizer. Understanding emissions from agricultural products at a high-resolution is essential for environmental policy making. Here, we present an Agricultural, Product-specific, AMMOnia emission dataset (AP-AMMO) for 17 crop groups, 2 grass types, and 6 livestock types across Europe at 5-arc minute resolution. We show that European agriculture emitted 3.5Tg NH3-N in 2017, with major livestock products (dairy cattle, other cattle, and swine) and major crop and grassland products (wheat, barley, maize, rapeseed, and permanent grass) contributing 66% and 14%, respectively. When aggregated to national and regional scales, AP-AMMO emissions fall within the range of previous estimates of commonly used (yet more aggregated) models (e.g. EDGAR, GAINS, CLRTAP, IMAGE-GNM, MASAGE). Discrepancies occur due to different excretion and emission factors and the spatial distributions of the production and management of agricultural products. This high-resolution database provides a basis for assessing food system transition impacts on the European nitrogen cycle.