New paper from the project Nh₃-Min

Urea is a widely used fertilizer but leads to nitrogen losses such as ammonia (NH₃), which contributes to environmental pollution and represents a loss of N for crop production. Consequently, urease inhibitors (UI) are increasingly used in agricultural practice to reduce N losses and to ensure compliance with regulations recently introduced in some European countries.

We conducted an analysis of the current international literature to derive a new emission factor for NH₃ losses after urea application with UIs for Western Central Europe, suitable for integration into the German emission inventory and inventories of other countries with similar cropping conditions. Based on a linear mixed effects model, we found an abatement factor of 60% with no significant influence of environmental factors such as soil pH or temperature.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2025.117285