Environmental Science
Nitrogen Cycle Disruption Due to Agricultural Fertilizers
Quick fact
Humans have doubled the amount of reactive nitrogen entering the land-based nitrogen cycle, primarily through the production and use of synthetic fertilizers. This has created over 500 coastal dead zones worldwide.
Why this is interesting
Every time you eat food grown with synthetic fertilizers, you are participating in one of the largest disruptions of Earth's nitrogen cycle—a process that now rivals natural nitrogen fixation in scale.