Nitrogen dynamics

This project will contribute to an improved understanding of multiple interactions between nitrogen and other Planetary Boundaries. Nitrogen is a key nutrient for food production and plays a key role in agricultural productivity growth and global food security. However, nitrogen surpluses and inefficiencies contribute to climate change as well as water and air pollution, leading to huge health problems and related socio-economic costs around the world. The biophysical crop, vegetation, and water model LPJmL and the socio-economic land-use model MAgPIE, both developed and maintained at PIK, cover many nitrogen-related processes and challenges in considerable detail, from global to local scales. This project will contribute to an even better understanding of these multiple interactions and substantially improve nitrogen-related process coverage and understanding in the PIK models. Based on these improved models, new scientific results will be published in peer-reviewed journals. The key results of these publications will be summarized in policy briefs, which can be disseminated among stakeholders, to provide decision support along the whole food value chain and in the policy process.