Integrating nitrogen fertilizer management for mitigating agricultural ammonia emissions and PM2.5 pollution

Liu, Pengfei, Shen, Xiaoyu, Zhuo, Lu, Qian, Wangxu, Guo, Benxin, He, Lijie, Song, Hongquan, Hu, Feichi and Wang, Feng 2026. Integrating nitrogen fertilizer management for mitigating agricultural ammonia emissions and PM2.5 pollution. Atmospheric Research , 109343. 10.1016/j.atmosres.2026.109343

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Abstract

Agricultural ammonia (NH3) emissions are a major contributor to severe PM2.5 pollution, yet their effective control remains a global challenge for achieving clean air goals. Existing air quality assessments often rely on arbitrary nitrogen fertilizer reduction scenarios and time-averaged emission inventories, which fail to capture the high-intensity “emission pulse” immediately following fertilization and therefore offer limited guidance for practical agricultural management. To address this limitation, we developed a high-precision assessment framework that couples the WRF-Chem model with realistic agricultural abatement scenarios and a dynamic, spatiotemporally resolved emission allocation approach based on hyperbolic and exponential decay functions. The framework was applied to a complete wheat growing season in Henan Province, China. The results show that under the baseline scenario (55,110 t NH3), the regional mean PM2.5 concentration reached 52.09 μg m−3. The multi-measure fertilization strategy (Scenario 2) was the most effective, reducing NH3 emissions by approximately 94% and decreasing the provincial mean PM2.5 concentration by 7.31 μg m−3, with a maximum reduction of 11.55 μg m−3 during the critical top-dressing period. In contrast, the single-measure scenario (Scenario 1), characterized by non-synergistic optimization, paradoxically increased the provincial mean PM2.5 concentration by 8.01 μg m−3 during the February–March top-dressing period. Pronounced spatial heterogeneity was also observed, clearly distinguishing agriculturally dominated pollution areas from regions dominated by industrial and transport emissions. By establishing an integrated framework that links specific on-farm management practices to regional air quality responses, this study quantifies the full impact pathway from agricultural technologies to atmospheric outcomes. The findings highlight that effective mitigation policies should move beyond uniform reduction targets toward spatially explicit, multi-source, and synergistic strategies to achieve co-benefits for public health protection and sustainable agricultural development.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Published Online
Status:	In Press
Schools:	Schools > Earth and Environmental Sciences Schools > Physical, Chemical & Environmental Sciences
Publisher:	Elsevier BV
ISSN:	0169-8095
Date of Acceptance:	13 September 2026
Last Modified:	28 Sep 2026 11:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/189836

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