Woods Hole Research Center

Our challenge is to manage reactive nitrogen wisely, so that it supports productive agriculture where needed, while causing minimal harm to native ecosystems and human health through air and water pollution. This challenge will be magnified in the future as both population and per-capita use of resources increases.

The complex environmental, human health and economic issues surrounding reactive nitrogen (whether in excess or in deficiency) require monitoring, research and assessment of its effects, as well as broader information sharing to inform the design of specific policy responses at local, national and regional levels. Experience shows that well designed policy instruments can play a major role in rectifying reactive nitrogen imbalances and their resulting effects.

Algal bloom image courtesy of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Developing effective policies is not a simple matter because the effects of reactive nitrogen are not limited to a single medium — air or soil or water — and a policy to remedy one issue may inadvertently aggravate another.

Thus, a comprehensive and coherent understanding of the issue, and of the status of related policy initiatives, is an initial requirement for any action. A lack of technical capacity, economic incentives, and informational resources hampers effective policy and action on this issue. Successfully resolving the challenges created by the excesses of reactive nitrogen requires an integrated approach across policy sectors. This integration must be guided by further assessment, monitoring and analysis of the behavior and impacts of reactive nitrogen in the environment, and by experience already gained in developing and implementing policies to reduce the impacts of reactive nitrogen.