Explain the causality between a) nitrogen use efficiency and crop productivity a

Question

Explain the causality between a) nitrogen use efficiency and crop productivity and b) nitrogen use efficiency and decreased environmental degradation

(To explain “causality” means to answer the question: Why can the authors of Zhang et al. (2015) assume that nitrogen use efficiency would be a cause to the effect of greater crop productivity/decreased environmental degradation?)

Please craft your response in a way that it meets a minimum level of explanatory effort without becoming to “wordy”. To this end, stay within a word count of at least 50 words and no more than 100 words.

Explanation / Answer

increased consumption of N fertilizers is associated with a large decrease in NUE in recent years. The CO2 eq. of N2O emissions originating from N fertilization for cereal production were approximately 12 times higher in 2011 than in 1970, indicating that the inefficient use of N fertilizers is directly related to environmental losses. The projected N fertilizer forecasts are 2.09 and 2.37 million ton for 2015 and 2023, respectively. An increase of 0.02% per year in the projected NUE was predicted for the same time period. However, decreases in the projected CO2 eq. emissions for future years were not predicted. In a hypothetical scenario, a 2.39% increase in cereal NUE would lead to $ 21 million savings in N fertilizer costs. Thus, increases in NUE rates would lead not only to agronomic and environmental benefits but also to economic improvement. Nitrogen is a critical macroelement for plant growth and development, and its availability is the major limiting factor for primary productivity in most terrestrial ecosystems. In this sense, N fertilization is one of the most commonly widespread practices on agricultural productivity. Fertilizers, manure, N fixation by legumes and rainfall deposition are the main inputs of N to soils.

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