Foliar N O emissions constitute a significant source to atmosphere.

Nitrous oxide (N O) is a potent greenhouse gas and causes stratospheric ozone depletion. While the emissions of N O from soil are widely recognized, recent research has shown that terrestrial plants may also emit N O from their leaves under controlled laboratory conditions. However, it is unclear whether foliar N O emissions are universal across varying plant taxa, what the global significance of foliar N O emissions is, and how the foliage produces N O in situ.

Low-opportunity-cost feed can reduce land-use-related environmental impacts by about one-third in China.

Feeding animals more low-opportunity-cost feed products (LCFs), such as food waste and by-products, may decrease food-feed competition for cropland. Using a feed allocation optimization model that considers the availability of feed sources and animal requirements for protein and energy, we explored the perspectives of feeding more LCFs to animals in China. We found that about one-third of the animal feed consisted of human-edible products, while only 23% of the available LCFs were used as feed during 2009-2013.

Lower pork consumption and technological change in feed production can reduce the pork supply chain environmental footprint in China.

Nearly half of global pork production and consumption occurs in China, but the transition towards intensification is associated with worsening environmental impacts. Here we explore scenarios for implementing structural and technological changes across the pork supply chain to improve environmental sustainability and meet future demand. Following the middle-of-the-road socio-economic pathway (SSP2), we estimate that the environmental footprint from the pork supply chain will increase by ~50% from 2017 to 2050.

Integrating crop redistribution and improved management towards meeting China's food demand with lower environmental costs.

China feeds 19.1% of the world's population with 8.6% of the arable land.

Anthropogenic N input increases global warming potential by awakening the "sleeping" ancient C in deep critical zones.

Even a small net increase in soil organic carbon (SOC) mineralization will cause a substantial increase in the atmospheric CO concentration. It is widely recognized that the SOC mineralization within deep critical zones (2 to 12 m depth) is slower and much less influenced by anthropogenic disturbance when compared to that of surface soil. Here, we showed that 20 years of nitrogen (N) fertilization enriched a deep critical zone with nitrate, almost doubling the SOC mineralization rate.