Discovery could have implications for agricultural management and climate change mitigation
Cornell University scientists Rachel Hestrin and Johannes Lehmann, along with collaborators from Canada and Australia, have shown that charcoal can mop up large quantities of nitrogen from the air pollutant ammonia, resulting in a potential slow-release fertilizer with more nitrogen than most animal manures or other natural soil amendments. The results were published Friday in Nature Communications.
Ammonia is a common component of agricultural fertilizers and provides a bioavailable form of the essential nutrient nitrogen to plants. However, ammonia is also a highly reactive gas that can combine with other air pollutants to create particles that travel deep into the lungs, leading to a host of respiratory issues. It also indirectly contributes to climate change when excess fertilizer inputs to soil are converted into nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.
In Canada, ammonia emissions have increased by 22 per cent since 1990, and 90 per cent are produced by agriculture, particularly from manures, slurries and fertilizer applications. Mitigating this pollutant—without limiting fertilizers and food growth for our growing world population—is key to a sustainable future.
>Read more on the Canadian Light Source website
Image: Rachel Hestrin (right) on the beamlines at Canadian Light Source with fellow Cornell researcher Angela Possinger.