January 12, 2026
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How much can changes in the agro-food system reduce agricultural nitrogen losses to the environment? Example of a temperate-Mediterranean gradient

Publicated to: JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT. 337 117732- - 2023-03-20 337(), DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117732

Authors:

Garnier, Josette; Billen, Gilles; Aguilera, Eduardo; Lassaletta, Luis; Einarsson, Rasmus; Serra, Joao; Cameira, Maria do Rosario; Marques-dos-Santos, Claudia; Sanz-Cobena, Alberto
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Affiliations

CEIGRAM Univ Politecn Madrid, ETSI Agron Alimentaria & Biosistemas, Madrid, Spain - Author
SU CNRS EPHE, Umr Metis 7619, 4 Pl Jussieu, F-75005 Paris, France - Author
Swedish Univ Agr Sci, Dept Energy & Technol, Uppsala, Sweden - Author
Univ Lisbon, Inst Super Agron, LEAF Linking Landscape Environm Agr & Food Res Ctr, Associated Lab TERRA, 1349017, Lisbon, Portugal - Author
Univ Lisbon, Inst Super Agron, P-1349017 Lisbon, Portugal - Author
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Abstract

Ammonia (NH3) volatilization, nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions, and nitrate (NO3-) leaching from agriculture cause severe environmental hazards. Research studies and mitigation strategies have mostly focused on one of these nitrogen (N) losses at a time, often without an integrated view of the agro-food system. Yet, at the regional scale, N2O, NH3, and NO3 loss patterns reflect the structure of the whole agro-food system. Here, we analyzed at the resolution of NUTS2 administrative European Union (EU) regions, N fluxes through the agro-food systems of a Temperate-Mediterranean gradient (France, Spain, and Portugal) experiencing contrasting climate and soil conditions. We assessed the atmospheric and hydrological N emissions from soils and livestock systems. Expressed per ha agricultural land, NH3 volatilization varied in the range 6.2-44.4 kg N ha(-1) yr(-) 1, N2O emission and NO3 leaching 0.3-4.9 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1) and 5.4-154 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1) respectively. Overall, lowest N2O emission was found in the Mediterranean regions, where NO3 leaching was greater. NH3 volatilization in both temperate and Mediterranean regions roughly follows the distribution of livestock density. We showed that these losses are also closely correlated with the level of fertilization intensity and agriculture system specialization into either stockless crop farming or intensive livestock farming in each region. Moreover, we explored two possible future scenarios at the 2050 horizon: (1) a scenario based on the prescriptions of the EU-Farm-to-Fork (F2F) strategy, with 25% of organic farming, 10% of land set aside for biodiversity, 20% reduction in N fertilizers, and no diet change; and (2) a hypothetical agro-ecological (AE) scenario with generalized organic farming, reconnection of crop and livestock farming, and a healthier human diet with an increase in the share of vegetal protein to 65% (i. e., the Mediterranean diet). Results showed that the AE scenario, owing to its profound reconfiguration of the entire agro-food system would have the potential for much greater reductions in NH3, N2O, and NO3 emissions, namely, 60-81% reduction, while the F2F scenario would only reach 24-35% reduction of N losses.
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Keywords

AgricultureAgro-ecological and farm-to-fork scenariosAgro-food systemsAmmoniaAmmonia emissionsAtmospheric n emissionsFarmsFertilizersHumansLand-useN losses to hydrosystemsN o 2N(2)oN2oN2o emissionsNh 3Nh(3)Nh3NitrogenNitrous oxideNo 3 −No(3)(−)No3Nutrient budgetsOxide emissionsRiver-basinSeine basinSoilTropospheric ozoneUltraviolet-radiationWater management

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2023, it was in position 35/358, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Environmental Sciences. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 3.19. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 2.07 (source consulted: FECYT Mar 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2026-04-25, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 21
  • Scopus: 23
  • Europe PMC: 5
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-25:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 73.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 72 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 24.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 4 (Altmetric).
  • The number of mentions in news outlets: 2 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: https://oa.upm.es/92761/

As a result of the publication of the work in the institutional repository, statistical usage data has been obtained that reflects its impact. In terms of dissemination, we can state that, as of

  • Views: 42
  • Downloads: 11
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: France; Portugal; Sweden.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: Last Author (SANZ COBEÑA, ALBERTO).

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Awards linked to the item

The study was conducted within the framework of several scientific projects, the INMS project (https://www.inms.international/), and was partially funded by the AgroGreen SUDOE project (https://agrogr eensudoe.org/fr/) and by a study linked to the European Green Deal (B. Grizzetti, EU Joint Research Centre, JRC, Ispra, Italy is greatly acknowledged). Thanks are due to the PIREN-Seine Programme and French LTER-Zones Ateliers-(CNRS, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) in France, as well as the Comunidad de Madrid and structural funds 2014-2020 (ERDF and ESF), projects AGRISOSTCM S2018/BAA-4330 (MISIU, Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities) and AgroScena-UP (PID2019-107972RB-I00) in Spain. E. Aguilera is supported by a Juan de la Cierva research contract from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (IJC2019-040699-I) and is partly affiliated to Alimentta, Think Tank para la Transicion Alimentaria, 18320 Santa Fe (Spain). L. Lassaletta is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and European Commission ERDF Ramon y Cajal grant (RYC-2016-20269), Programa Propio from UPM. A. Pomet, a geomatics engineer at Umr Metis (Sorbonne Universite, Paris), is greatly acknowledged for making the maps with Q-Gis.
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