Preface
Reactive nitrogen (N) is closely associated with food and energy production. As a
fast-growing economy, China has experienced rapid industrialization and urbanization since the late 1970s. To meet the continuously increasing needs of the world’s
largest population, China has consumed the largest amounts of fossil fuels and
chemical fertilizers at an unprecedented rate. Consequently, more and more reactive
N has been created and translocated to the environments, causing an N cascade effect
on the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Understanding this cascade is
crucial in view of a national goal to shift towards the ecological civilization in China.
The story began in May 2006 when I, Dr. Xuejun Liu (one of the two editors),
visited Rothamsted Research and Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in the United
Kingdom as a guest professor. In that year, I published the first paper on N
deposition of my group in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (Liu X.J., Ju
X.T., Zhang Y., He C.E., Kopsch J., Zhang F.S., 2006. Nitrogen deposition in
agroecosystems in the Beijing area. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 113:
370-377) and found the large research gap in atmospheric N deposition in China.
Mr. Enzai Du (the other editor) was a Ph.D. student in Peking University, who was
conducting studies on the impacts of N deposition on forest ecosystems. In the
winter of 2009, we – I and Dr. Enzai Du – met each other by chance at Edinburgh,
UK, during a workshop on N deposition, critical loads, and biodiversity. We
exchanged our viewpoints on the issues of reactive N in China and found many
common interests in the research field of atmospheric reactive N. This discussion
made the basis of our long-term collaboration afterward and also inspired the idea to
write a review article on N deposition and its ecological impact in China. Collaborating with other eight experts from China Agricultural University, Tsinghua University, and Chinese Academy of Sciences, we wrote the first review paper jointly in
2011, which was published in a special issue of Environmental Pollution edited by
Profs. Christine L. Goodale, Nancy B. Dise, and Mark A. Sutton (Liu X.J., Duan L.,
Mo J.M., Du E.Z., Shen J.L., Lu X.K., Zhang Y., Zhou X.B., He C.E., Zhang F.S.,
2011. Nitrogen deposition and its ecological impact in China: An overview.
Environmental Pollution 159: 2251-2264).
vii
Reactive nitrogen (N) is closely associated with food and energy production. As a
fast-growing economy, China has experienced rapid industrialization and urbanization since the late 1970s. To meet the continuously increasing needs of the world’s
largest population, China has consumed the largest amounts of fossil fuels and
chemical fertilizers at an unprecedented rate. Consequently, more and more reactive
N has been created and translocated to the environments, causing an N cascade effect
on the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. Understanding this cascade is
crucial in view of a national goal to shift towards the ecological civilization in China.
The story began in May 2006 when I, Dr. Xuejun Liu (one of the two editors),
visited Rothamsted Research and Centre for Ecology & Hydrology in the United
Kingdom as a guest professor. In that year, I published the first paper on N
deposition of my group in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment (Liu X.J., Ju
X.T., Zhang Y., He C.E., Kopsch J., Zhang F.S., 2006. Nitrogen deposition in
agroecosystems in the Beijing area. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 113:
370-377) and found the large research gap in atmospheric N deposition in China.
Mr. Enzai Du (the other editor) was a Ph.D. student in Peking University, who was
conducting studies on the impacts of N deposition on forest ecosystems. In the
winter of 2009, we – I and Dr. Enzai Du – met each other by chance at Edinburgh,
UK, during a workshop on N deposition, critical loads, and biodiversity. We
exchanged our viewpoints on the issues of reactive N in China and found many
common interests in the research field of atmospheric reactive N. This discussion
made the basis of our long-term collaboration afterward and also inspired the idea to
write a review article on N deposition and its ecological impact in China. Collaborating with other eight experts from China Agricultural University, Tsinghua University, and Chinese Academy of Sciences, we wrote the first review paper jointly in
2011, which was published in a special issue of Environmental Pollution edited by
Profs. Christine L. Goodale, Nancy B. Dise, and Mark A. Sutton (Liu X.J., Duan L.,
Mo J.M., Du E.Z., Shen J.L., Lu X.K., Zhang Y., Zhou X.B., He C.E., Zhang F.S.,
2011. Nitrogen deposition and its ecological impact in China: An overview.
Environmental Pollution 159: 2251-2264).
vii