Nature FoodPub Date : 2025-02-17DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01125-y
Stefano Mingolla, Lorenzo Rosa
{"title":"Low-carbon ammonia production is essential for resilient and sustainable agriculture","authors":"Stefano Mingolla, Lorenzo Rosa","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01125-y","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01125-y","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Ammonia-based synthetic nitrogen fertilizers (N fertilizers) are critical for global food security. However, their production, primarily dependent on fossil fuels, is energy- and carbon-intensive and vulnerable to supply chain disruptions, affecting 1.8 billion people reliant on either imported fertilizers or natural gas. Here we examine the global N-fertilizer supply chain and analyse context-specific trade-offs of low-carbon ammonia production pathways. Carbon capture and storage can reduce overall emissions by up to 70%, but still relies on natural gas. Electrolytic and biochemical processes minimize emissions but are 2–3 times more expensive and require 100–300 times more land and water than the business-as-usual production. Decentralized production has the potential to reduce transportation costs, emissions, reliance on imports and price volatility, increasing agricultural productivity in the global south, but requires policy support. Interdisciplinary approaches are essential to understand these trade-offs and find resilient ways to feed a growing population while minimizing climate impacts.</p>","PeriodicalId":19090,"journal":{"name":"Nature Food","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143427037","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature FoodPub Date : 2025-02-11DOI: 10.1038/s43016-025-01122-1
Shuang-Lin Dong, Ling Cao, Wen-Jing Liu, Ming Huang, Yun-Xia Sun, Yu-Yang Zhang, Shuang-En Yu, Yan-Gen Zhou, Li Li, Yun-Wei Dong
{"title":"System-specific aquaculture annual growth rates can mitigate the trilemma of production, pollution and carbon dioxide emissions in China","authors":"Shuang-Lin Dong, Ling Cao, Wen-Jing Liu, Ming Huang, Yun-Xia Sun, Yu-Yang Zhang, Shuang-En Yu, Yan-Gen Zhou, Li Li, Yun-Wei Dong","doi":"10.1038/s43016-025-01122-1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01122-1","url":null,"abstract":"<p>The aquaculture sector faces a trilemma of simultaneously boosting production, decreasing nutrient discharges and reducing CO<sub>2</sub> emissions. Here we evaluate the growth trajectories and ecological footprints of different aquaculture systems in China, considering both business as usual and ecological transformation scenarios, and anticipate the evolution of sustainable aquaculture in the post-carbon neutrality era. We explore a two-step approach involving ecological transformation and green aquaculture. By adjusting the annual growth rates of six out of nine aquaculture systems, energy use, nitrogen discharge, land use and freshwater usage per unit of mass gain could be reduced by 1.70%, 6.89%, 7.12% and 8.86%, respectively, by 2050 compared with the business as usual levels. Owing to changes in the energy supply mix in China, by 2050, the total CO<sub>2</sub> emissions from aquaculture will only increase by 5.7% compared with the level in 2021. Once carbon neutrality is attained, the focus should shift to mitigating nutrient discharges. Our findings underscore the necessity for substantial improvement in the Chinese aquaculture development plan and offer a blueprint for sustainable aquaculture advancement for guiding policy and practice.</p>","PeriodicalId":19090,"journal":{"name":"Nature Food","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-02-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143385269","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature FoodPub Date : 2025-01-08DOI: 10.1038/s43016-024-01107-6
Chenchen Ren, Liyin He, Lorenzo Rosa
{"title":"Integrated irrigation and nitrogen optimization is a resource-efficient adaptation strategy for US maize and soybean production","authors":"Chenchen Ren, Liyin He, Lorenzo Rosa","doi":"10.1038/s43016-024-01107-6","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01107-6","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Climate change poses substantial challenges to agriculture and crop production, but the combined role of nitrogen and water inputs in adaptation has been largely overlooked. Here, by developing regression models using US county-level data (2008–2020), we demonstrate that integrated optimization of irrigation and nitrogen inputs represents the most resource-efficient strategy to offset the climate-related yield losses. Under the 1.5 °C (3 °C) warming scenario, this approach involves increasing irrigation water withdrawals for maize by 62% (67%) and reducing it for soybean by 65% (58%), while increasing nitrogen inputs for maize by 4% (13%) and for soybean by 10% (130%) annually. This strategy reduces unsustainable irrigation water withdrawals by 73% (56%) for maize and 26% (28%) for soybean, enhancing water sustainability. Cost–benefit analysis indicates this optimization is cost-effective for over 80% of US maize and soybean productions, underscoring its critical role for climate change adaptation.</p>","PeriodicalId":19090,"journal":{"name":"Nature Food","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142936343","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Nature FoodPub Date : 2025-01-03DOI: 10.1038/s43016-024-01106-7
Ziheng Peng, Marcel G. A. van der Heijden, Yu Liu, Xiaomeng Li, Haibo Pan, Yining An, Hang Gao, Jiejun Qi, Jiamin Gao, Xun Qian, James M. Tiedje, Gehong Wei, Shuo Jiao
{"title":"Agricultural subsoil microbiomes and functions exhibit lower resistance to global change than topsoils in Chinese agroecosystems","authors":"Ziheng Peng, Marcel G. A. van der Heijden, Yu Liu, Xiaomeng Li, Haibo Pan, Yining An, Hang Gao, Jiejun Qi, Jiamin Gao, Xun Qian, James M. Tiedje, Gehong Wei, Shuo Jiao","doi":"10.1038/s43016-024-01106-7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01106-7","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Soils play a critical role in supporting agricultural production. Subsoils, below 20 cm, underpin fundamental agroecosystem sustainability traits including soil carbon storage, climate regulation and water provision. However, little is known about the ecological stability of subsoils in response to global change. Here we conducted a microcosm experiment to determine whether subsoils were more sensitive to global changes across 40 agricultural ecosystems in China, in combination with a multiple global change factor experiment and an in situ field study. We found that subsoils exhibited greater fluctuation in species diversity, community composition, and complexity of microbial networks and ecosystem functions than topsoils, indicating lower resistance to global changes. Soil biodiversity was a major driver of ecosystem resistance, surpassing climate and soil parameters. A reciprocal microorganism transplant experiment showed that microorganisms isolated from the topsoil are more resistant to global changes than those from subsoil. Our study emphasizes that subsoil ecosystems are sensitive to global changes, underscoring the importance of including subsoils in predictions of agricultural sustainability and crop productivity under changing environmental conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":19090,"journal":{"name":"Nature Food","volume":"81 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-01-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142916872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}