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Nitrogen budgets of the Polish agriculture 1960–2000: implications for riverine nitrogen loads to the Baltic Sea from transitional countries

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Abstract

The Oder and the Vistula rivers are responsible for about 25% of the total riverine nitrogen input to the Baltic Sea and of this 60% have been estimated to originate from diffuse sources. In this study we have tested the hypothesis that changes in agricultural practices in Poland have changed the riverine nitrogen export from the rivers Oder and Vistula to the Baltic Sea. We calculated agricultural long-term nitrogen budgets (1960–2000) for the catchments of the Oder and the Vistula rivers. Poland went through severe economical changes in the early 1990s, which led to a drastic decrease in fertilizer consumption. The role of the calculated nitrogen surplus as an eutrophication capacitor and the potential to reduce this important capacitor to improve the environmental state of the Baltic Sea is discussed. N surplus for the entire country showed a maximum in 1980 (58 kg ha−1 sown area−1) and it dropped to 39 kg ha−1 sown area−1 in 2000. The surplus was, however, up to two times lower than that in other transitional countries, and much lower than in Western Europe with intensive agriculture. An observed decrease in nitrogen concentrations in both Polish rivers is not ascribed to drop in fertilizer use, but it results from nutrient removal in municipal wastewater treatment plants with tertiary treatment facilities. Comparison of trends in nitrogen concentrations in different transition countries indicates that factors other than reduced fertilizer application influenced the inertia of the water quality response. Hence, the potential to reduce diffuse nitrogen emissions from agriculture by reducing fertilization is constricted in areas with low-nitrogen surplus. In transitional countries like Poland the largest potential for nutrient reductions seem to be in improving the connectivity to waste water treatment plants with tertiary treatment.

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Abbreviations

AU:

Animal unit

EU:

European union

EMEP:

Co-operative programme for monitoring and evaluation of the long-range transmission of air pollutants in Europe; http://www.emep.int

FAO:

Food and agriculture organization of the United Nations; http://www.fao.org

GDP:

Gross domestic product

GNP:

Gross national productivity

GUS:

Central statistical office of Poland; http://www.stat.gov.pl/english/index.htm

ha:

Hectare

HELCOM:

Helsinki commission-Baltic marine environment protection commissions; http://www.helcom.fi

MWWTP:

Municipal waste water treatment plant

N:

Nitrogen

NH3-N:

Ammonia

NUR:

Nutrient utilization ratio

TN:

Total Nitrogen

UNECE/EMEP:

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe/Co-operative programme for monitoring and evaluation of long range transmission of air pollutants in Europe

US:

United States

yr:

year

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by the Swedish Strategic Fond for Environmental Research (MISTRA) and the European Commission (R&D priority Sustainable Marine Ecosystems, Contract No EVK3-CT-2002-00069).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Environmental Science (ITM), Stockholm University, 106 91, Stockholm, Sweden

    Hanna Eriksson

  2. Sea Fisheries Institute, ul. Kołłątaja 1, 81-332, Gdynia, Poland

    Marianna Pastuszak

  3. Department of Environmental Assessment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 75007, Uppsala, Sweden

    Stefan Löfgren

  4. Department of Geochemistry, Stockholm University, 10691, Stockholm, Sweden

    Carl-Magnus Mörth

  5. Department of Applied Environmental Science, Stockholm University, 10691, Stockholm, Sweden

    Christoph Humborg

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  1. Hanna Eriksson
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  2. Marianna Pastuszak
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Correspondence to Hanna Eriksson.

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Eriksson, H., Pastuszak, M., Löfgren, S. et al. Nitrogen budgets of the Polish agriculture 1960–2000: implications for riverine nitrogen loads to the Baltic Sea from transitional countries. Biogeochemistry 85, 153–168 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10533-007-9126-y

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