permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [SANET-MG] Nitrogen Overdose
Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:37:44 -0400
From: Joel Gruver <jgruv@HOTMAIL.COM>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Hello folks,

The following article about the ecological impact of anthropogenic N may be
of interest...

Joel

BTW here is a link to (what I think is) the UN report referenced in the
article.

http://www.whrc.org/policy/Reactive_nitrogen.htm

********************************************
Nitrogen Overdose
- Element quietly rivaling CO2 as a global climate threat

By Suzanne Bohan, Staff writer
Inside Bay Area, 8/12/2007

ON AN OVERCAST DAY in April, Stuart Weiss stood in the rolling hills of a
Bay Area nature preserve and lifted a bag of nitrogen-based fertilizer to
his shoulder.

The heavy sack, the Menlo Park ecologist explained to a small crowd gathered
before him, symbolized the unprecedented release of nitrogen into the Earths
air, land and water, and the insidious environmental changes under way
globally from the potent fertilizer.

At Edgewood Park in Redwood City where he stood, nitrogen from vehicle
exhaust on a nearby freeway has led to the local demise of a threatened
butterfly population, according to research Weiss conducted. The clear link
he established between the exhaust and the butterflies decline attracted
international attention among the growing federation of scientists studying
nitrogen pollution.

I call it the biggest global change that nobody has ever heard of, Weiss
said at the spring event. The planet has never seen this much nitrogen at
any time. Human activity now releases 125 million metric tons of nitrogen
from agricultural activities and fossil fuel combustion a year, compared to
113 million metric tons annually from natural sources, according to a 2007
United Nations report called Human Alteration of the Nitrogen Cycle.

In 1860, the U.N. report noted, there was virtually no release from human
activity. The consequences of this spike, the report added, are profound.

Not only is this glut of nitrogen disrupting ecosystems, polluting waters
and harming human health, but its a silent partner, along with carbon
dioxide, in changing the Earths climate.

Despite the countless initiatives under way to reduce CO2 levels to slow
global warming, scientists warn that those efforts will prove moot unless
nitrogen releases also are lowered.

One nitrogen compound is especially worrisome, as it lingers in the
atmosphere for a century and is 300 times as potent a heat-trapping gas as
carbon dioxide.

"We won't solve global warming without addressing nitrogen," said Elizabeth
Holland, a senior scientist with the National Center for Atmospheric
Research in Boulder, Colo.

"The changes to the nitrogen cycle are larger in magnitude and more profound
than the changes to the carbon cycle," Holland continued. "But the nitrogen
cycle is being neglected."

And that's a grave oversight, said Margaret Torn, the head of Climate Change
and Carbon Management program at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

"Nitrogen should be on the radar," she said. "Unless we control that
problem, we won't solve climate change."

Weiss, a Stanford University-trained scientist, focuses significant effort
on researching nitrogen's far-reaching effects on ecosystems. But he also
wears the hat of an advocate, pushing for more regulation of the potent
element, and for greater public engagement in demanding more sustainable use
of nitrogen.

To that end, Weiss eschews science-speak in addressing the public, and
instead offers up memorable sound bites and photo ops, like his bag of
fertilizer. He refers to the local demise of the bay checkerspot butterfly
at Edgewood Park as "a drive-by extinction."

His strategy has worked, as the Edgewood Park scenario is not only
referenced in scientific circles but in numerous media accounts.

Reaching policymakers and the public with an easy-to-grasp message has been
one of the challenges in getting a grip on nitrogen pollution, Holland said.

"The scientific evidence for this being a problem is really accumulating,"
she said. "The issue is getting the word out. With the carbon cycle, you can
focus on CO2. But with nitrogen, you have all these different compounds and
it's a much harder story to tell."

Too much of a good thing

This element that's the focus of mounting concern is a building block of
life. Without nitrogen, plants couldn't photosynthesize, proteins couldn't
form, DNA wouldn't exist, and life as we know it would cease.

But too much of a good thing, especially one as potent as the mountains of
nitrogen now manufactured and released annually, disrupts natural cycles
eons in the making.

An inert form of nitrogen, N2, actually comprises about 80 percent of the
Earth's atmosphere. It stays to itself, however, thanks to powerful chemical
bonds that keep the two nitrogen molecules tightly bound.

While nature on its own does separate them and create "reactive nitrogen,"
it's on a limited basis. This reactive form — which fuels life — has
historically been a scarce commodity.

But in the early 20th century, two scientists found a way to convert inert
nitrogen in the air into fertilizer. The invention revolutionized
agriculture, lifting limits on food production and

allowing the human population to expand exponentially.

But copious amounts of fertilizer are now used in agriculture, with the
excess draining into rivers, lakes and the ocean.

Combustion of gasoline, natural gas and coal also releases enormous
quantities of nitrogen-based compounds into the atmosphere, much of which
settles on land and water. Animal waste is another major source of nitrogen.

With fertilizer literally falling from the sky, plants — many of them
invasive weeds — get turbocharged from nitrogen, altering natural habitats
by driving out native plants and the animals that rely on them.

California is at particular risk for this disruption, and the Bay Area is
designated as one of the nation's "hot spots" for nitrogen-induced
ecological shifts. Weiss estimates that in some Bay Area regions, auto
emissions deliver up to 20 pounds per acre a year of nitrogen — about half
the amount typically used on lawns.

And of the 225 plant species in California listed as threatened or
endangered by the federal and state government, 101 are exposed to levels of
nitrogen suspected of causing ecological disruption, according to a May 2006
California Energy Commission study prepared by Weiss.

The nitrogen also alters bodies of water by inducing algae growth. At Lake
Tahoe, for example, algae growth is contributing to the steady loss of
clarity in the lake's famously clear waters.

"We've actually found that about 55 percent of the nitrogen that gets into
the lake comes from the air," said John Reuter, acting associate director of
the University of California, Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center. "So
the sky is literally falling for that."

Excess nitrogen also harms human health — through contaminated water, air
pollutants and by its role in spreading mosquito-borne diseases like West
Nile disease by increasing algal food sources in water, according to a 2003
study on human health and excess nitrogen.

'Drive-by extinction'

Edgewood Park, located next to Interstate 280 in southern San Mateo County,
is becoming a classic example within scientific circles of nitrogen's
disruptive ecological effects.

Cars whizzing by on I-280 leave in their wake a trail of nitrogen. Plants
absorb it, while some nitrogen also settles and accumulates in the
nutrient-poor soil at Edgewood.

That extra dose of nitrogen enabled Italian rye grass, an aggressive
nonnative, to drive out plantain, a favorite food of the bay checkerspot
butterfly.

In 2002, nine years after the land was set aside as a preserve, the
threatened butterfly disappeared from the area. This spring, after mowing
down the rye grass, Weiss and others re-introduced the butterfly to the
park.

Weiss believes a similar process is under way at Antioch Dunes National
Wildlife Refuge, a

55-acre parcel in Antioch that's the last of the ancient San Joaquin River
dune system. Invasive grasses have overtaken the sandy dunes, driving out a
buckwheat plant native to the area. The Lange's Metalmark butterfly, which
makes its only home in the dunes, feeds on the buckwheat, and the insect's
numbers are rapidly declining. Two endangered wildflowers, the Antioch Dunes
evening primrose and Contra Costa wallflower, are also struggling against
the onslaught of invasive grass.

This list goes on: In the Mohave and Sonoran deserts, scientists believe
that nitrogen deposition explains the spread of nonnative grasses. These
grasses fuel fires that are devastating to a desert ecosystem poorly
equipped to regenerate after a blaze, according to a 2003 study on nitrogen
deposition in the western United States.

Populations of lichen and fungi, which perform fundamental roles in
sustaining healthy ecosystems, are plummeting in some regions of California,
due to nitrogen overload, the 2003 study added, with potentially dire
consequences to the plant species that evolved symbiotic relationships with
them.

Globally, studies also cite numerous additional examples of major ecosystem
shifts from nitrogen, including heathlands converting to grasslands in
Europe.

Weiss advocates for increased regulation of nitrogen as one solution, which
would include better controls on nitrogen in vehicle and power plant
emissions, as well as more judicious use of fertilizer.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the California Air Resources Board
regulate some nitrogen compounds created during combustion, but leave
unregulated many other forms.

The air resources board also takes no stance regarding evidence that
nitrogen deposition is changing the state's landscape.

"The ARB has not taken a position regarding the assertion of some scientists
that (nitrogen compounds) from vehicle exhaust are altering ecosystems,"
said Karen Caesar, a spokeswoman for the air resources board.

But many hundreds of studies support scientists' concerns about nitrogen,
and Weiss said there's no other plausible explanation for why so many
non-native species have taken root in nutrient-poor soil over the past two
decades.

"Those of us who are studying it are pretty scared," Weiss said.

"It's just an insidious environmental change that's happening," he
continued, "and we feel like there's just a few of us who are aware of it,
and on top of it and concerned about it.

"Call it 'Club N.'"

Joel Gruver
Dept of Agriculture
Western Illinois University
jgruv@hotmail.com


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [SANET-MG] N overdose
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 11:44:15 -0400
From: STEVE GILMAN <stevegilman@VERIZON.NET>
To: SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU

Hi Joel,        

        Thanks for the article and report on the long list of serious
environmental impacts brought about by manmade reactive N, including
nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times more virulent per pound
than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

        It's interesting that the chemical N fertilizer business got it's
start via an industrial bomb-making process, developed by Fritz Haber
and Carl Bosch during WWI to meet  Germany's nitrate needs for
armaments, after the allies blockaded the transport of guano and
Chilean nitrate sources. Here in the US,  wartime taxpayer dollars
built the industry -- initially dominated by DuPont --  that morphed
into fertilizer production during peacetime and then hugely expanded
during WWII. After that war, the nitrate companies went into
agricultural production big time, along with their nerve gas
manufacturing brethren who went into the chemical pesticides
business. Based on the availability of cheap petrochemicals and N,
the chemical ag industry soon dominated production.Their hegemony has
long become completely intrenched in policy, with corn ethanol as
their latest manifestation.

        As the article from last week's farmgate blog explains, however,
because of the high production costs dependent on natural gas, the US
is now an N IMPORTER.
<www.farmgate.uiuc.edu/archive/2007/08/as_you_book_you.html>
Curiously, now that the US finds itself competing in an international
N market we may find ourselves involved in a modern variant of the
guano wars.

        Combined with the shortages of phosphorus already elaborated upon on
this list, that bag of NPK is not so cheap or sustainable anymore,
and its prognosis is steadily worse. As scientific and public
tolerance for the polluting "by products" (including the new bottom
line-paradigm of energy use and climate change) of chemical ag
production fall under greater scrutiny and disrepute, Organic shines
all the brighter as the Way to Go. While agribusiness as usual has
certainly dominated the Farm Bill deliberations (so far) this time,
their adherents will have much less space to stand when the Farm Bill
comes around again five years hence.

        Meanwhile, the writing is on the wall, all their last-gasp political
machinations notwithstanding -- the sustainable/fertile soil/solar
energy/ biological control basis of organic production is actually
more competitive than petro-ag for generating our food supply, in
addition to its well-documented beneficent environmental and health
effects.

Steve
Ruckytucks Farm

======================================

farmgate: As You Book Your 2008 Nitrogen, Here Are The Reasons The
Cost Is Higher.

In agriculture you have to think ahead. Risk has to be managed so a
crisis does not develop. Crops have to be marketed before prices
plummet. Inputs have to be booked before costs increase. And it is
that nitrogen input that impacts fertilizer and chemical costs that
requires immediate attention.

Any farmer offered a higher price for a crop will produce more of
that commodity. But a USDA economist says it is just the opposite for
ammonia production that results in the reduced availability of
nitrogen fertilizer. The Impact of Rising Natural Gas Prices on U.S.
Ammonia Supply is a recent analysis by USDA’s Economics Research
Service which warns of reduced availability for ammonia due to higher
natural gas prices.

Any producer knows the importance of nitrogen, and USDA says, “Total
nitrogen costs for U.S. production of corn in 2005 and wheat in 2004
were $3.66 billion and $1.02 billion, respectively. Nitrogen costs
contributed to the largest operating expense for both corn and wheat
producers. Nitrogen application accounted for 22 percent of the
operating costs for corn producers and about 33 percent of the costs
for wheat producers.” With 90 million acres of $4 corn this year,
nitrogen use increased rapidly in all likelihood. If you remember
your soil chemistry less from school, “When combined with phosphoric
acid and potassium chloride, ammonia and its derivatives are the
basic material used in the formulation of various mixed fertilizers
containing nitrogen, phosphate and potash, which are used extensively
by farmers. Thus, a change in the price of ammonia often leads to
changes in the prices of all nitrogen fertilizers.”

The basis for ammonia production is natural gas, which accounts for
72%-85% of the cost of ammonia, subsequently; there is an 80% price
correlation between natural gas and ammonia. The high cost of natural
gas and low margins earned by ammonia producers since 2000 means low
profitability and USDA says, “Because of low profitability in recent
years, a significant number of ammonia producers ceased production or
merged with other producers.” Production capacity dropped 35% from
2000 to 2006 and actual production declined 44%. With less US
production, imports of ammonia have increased, with a 115% jump from
2000 to 2006, with shipments from Trinidad and Tobago, Canada,
Russia, and Ukraine. Even with increased imports, the overall supply
has declined.

Higher prices of natural gas means farmers will pay more for ammonia,
and prices went up 130% from 2000 to 2005. Those higher fertility
costs dropped profitability by 22% in corn and 32% in wheat. USDA
says those costs can be controlled by adopting production practices
that conserve nitrogen, “For example, a corn producer might reduce
the nitrogen application rate by applying the amount as determined by
equating the marginal return of nitrogen fertilizer to the high
nitrogen price, by delaying the nitrogen application from spring
before planting to summer after planting, by increasing use of
alternative sources of nitrogen (such as manure), or by switching
from corn to soybeans, as soybeans can obtain enough nitrogen from
the atmosphere.”

When ordering ammonia for your 2008 corn and wheat crops, prices will
be a function of overseas production costs and transportation costs.
1) Canadian natural gas prices are parallel with those in the US, so
Canada will not have a significant advantage, and production
capacities have recently declined as well.
2) Imports from Russia and Ukraine have high transportation costs,
negating the lower costs of natural gas and lower costs of ammonia
production.
3) The Mideast and North Africa have only limited production capacity
for ammonia, losing their advantage for low costs of natural gas.
4) Any increase of imported ammonia will likely come from the
Caribbean Republics of Trinidad and Tobago. Their natural gas price
is low, and production capacity is expected to increase, and there is
more incentive to ship ammonia than natural gas.

USDA believes that further increases in natural gas prices in the US
will result in further decreases in domestic ammonia production, and
more imports, most likely from the Caribbean. Because of the
increased demand on imported ammonia, US farmers may be susceptible
to global competition for nitrogen fertilizer. The US does have some
unused production capacity, which could supply enough ammonia to
provide nitrogen to an additional 10 million acres, should ethanol
continue to push up corn acreage. But that will result in higher
prices for ammonia and the cost of nitrogen fertilizer.

Summary:
High prices of natural gas have curtailed ammonia production,
reducing the supply and increasing the cost of nitrogen fertilizer.
The Caribbean is a potential source for increased imports, but with
increasing dependency on imported nitrogen comes a chance for a
volatile supply and a volatile price.