Climate Change and Downstream Water Quality in Agricultural Production: The Case of Nutrient Runoff to the Gulf of Mexico

20.500.12592/p6d0qz

Climate Change and Downstream Water Quality in Agricultural Production: The Case of Nutrient Runoff to the Gulf of Mexico

16 Jun 2022

Nitrogen (N) fertilizer use in agricultural production is a significant determinant of surface water quality. As climate changes, agricultural producers are likely to adapt at extensive and intensive margins in terms of land and per acre input use, including fertilizers. These changes can affect downstream water quality. We investigate the effect of climate-driven productivity changes on water quality in the Gulf of Mexico using an integrated hydro-economic agricultural land use (IHEAL) model. Our results indicate that land and N use adaptation in agricultural production to climate change increases N delivery to the Gulf of Mexico by 0.4%-1.58% relative to the baseline scenario with no climate change.
agriculture environment renewable resources environment and energy economics environmental and resource economics

Authors

Levan Elbakidze, Yuelu Xu, Philip W. Gassman, Jeffrey G. Arnold, Haw Yen

Acknowledgements & Disclosure
This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture- National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hatch [grant number WVA00691]; the National Science Foundation [grant number 1903543]; and the National Science Foundation initiative [grant number 1761772]. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3386/w30153
Published in
United States of America

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