Nitrogen fertilizer remains in soils, leaks towards groundwater for decades
Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - 09:00
in Earth & Climate
Nitrogen fertilizer applied to crops lingers in the soil and leaks out as nitrate for decades towards groundwater -- "much longer than previously thought," scientists say in a new study. Thirty years after synthetic nitrogen fertilizer had been applied to crops in 1982, about 15 percent of the fertilizer still remained in soil organic matter, these scientists found.