DOI: 10.5061/dryad.msbcc2g1x
title: Quantifying nitrogen deposition inputs to cropland: A national scale dataset from 1961 to 2020

description: Nitrogen (N) deposition is one of the major inputs to cropland and
 consequently important for the estimation of N Use Efficiency (NUE) for
 crop production. However, the estimates for N deposition carry large
 uncertainty, and existing assessments of N budgets and NUE on agricultural
 land use different estimates of N deposition. To evaluate the
 uncertainties in existing methods for national scale N deposition
 estimation and assess their impacts on the resulting NUE estimation for
 countries around the world, we 1) reviewed existing methods and related
 data sources for quantifying N deposition inputs to crop production on a
 national scale; 2) identified the most up–to–date data sources and
 designed methods to quantify N deposition input to crop production on a
 national scale; 3) collected N deposition data from observation sites in
 major countries (e.g., UK, US, and China) to validate the estimated N
 deposition input; and 4) conducted sensitivity analysis to evaluate how
 the uncertainties in N deposition affect crop NUE assessment. As a result,
 we established four estimates for N deposition inputs on cropland for 251
 countries around the world during 1961–2020 as combinations of two sets of
 N deposition maps (ACCMIP1 and Wang et al.2-4) and two sets of cropland
 maps (HYDE5 and LUH26). The four products (1. AH: ACCMIP and HYDE, 2. AL:
 ACCMIP and LUH2, 3. WH: Wang et al. and HYDE, and 4. WL: Wang et al. and
 LUH2) show good agreement in N deposition estimates for the majority of
 countries, but have large differences in several Asian countries (e.g.,
 China, India, and Pakistan), and the differences are mostly caused by the
 use of different N deposition maps. According to the comparison with the
 observation records in China, the deposition estimates based on Wang et
 al. show a better agreement with the observations. Hence, the
 authors recommend using product #4 WL (Wang et al. and LUH2) as the
 reference dataset for N deposition in the global assessments of N budgets
 by countries.  References: Lamarque, J. F. et al. Multi-model
 mean nitrogen and sulfur deposition from the atmospheric chemistry and
 climate model intercomparison project (ACCMIP): Evaluation of historical
 and projected future changes. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 13, 7997–8018 (2013).
 Shang, Z. et al. Weakened growth of cropland-N2O emissions in China
 associated with nationwide policy interventions. Glob. Chang. Biol. 25,
 3706–3719 (2019). Wang, Q. et al. Data-driven estimates of global nitrous
 oxide emissions from croplands. Natl. Sci. Rev. 7, 441–452 (2020). Wang,
 R. et al. Global forest carbon uptake due to nitrogen and phosphorus
 deposition from 1850 to 2100. Glob. Chang. Biol. 23, 4854–4872 (2017).
 Goldewijk, K. K., Beusen, A., Doelman, J. & Stehfest, E.
 Anthropogenic land use estimates for the Holocene - HYDE 3.2. Earth Syst.
 Sci. Data 9, 927–953 (2017). Hurtt, G. C. et al. Harmonization of global
 land use change and management for the period 850-2100 (LUH2) for CMIP6.
 Geoscientific Model Development 13, (2020).
description: # Quantifying nitrogen deposition inputs to cropland: A national scale
 dataset from 1961 to 2020 Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.msbcc2g1x](10.5061/dryad.msbcc2g1x) ## Description of the
 data and file structure The data contain N deposition (kg N ha-1 yr-1)  in
 cropland. Each file has rows for countries and columns for years. The NaN
 stands for "Not a Number". ### Files and variables #### File:
 1_AH.xlsx **Description:** includes the nitrogen deposition (kg N ha-1
 yr-1) data at country scale using ACCMIP N deposition maps and HYDE 3.2
 cropland maps.  #### File: 2_AL.xlsx **Description:** includes the
 nitrogen deposition (kg N ha-1 yr-1) data at country scale using ACCMIP N
 deposition maps and LUH2 cropland maps.  #### File: 3_WH_update2022.xlsx
 **Description:** includes the nitrogen deposition (kg N ha-1 yr-1) data at
 country scale using Wang et al. N deposition maps and HYDE 3.3 cropland
 maps.  #### File: 4_WL_update2022.xlsx **Description:** includes the
 nitrogen deposition (kg N ha-1 yr-1) data at country scale using Wang et
 al. N deposition maps and HYDE 3.3 cropland maps.  ## Code/software
 Codebase is here for the
 data: [https://github.com/svish91/UMCES_IFA_2021_Ndep.git](https://github.com/svish91/UMCES_IFA_2021_Ndep.git) ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * Vishwakarma, S., Zhang, X., Dobermann, A. *et al.* Global nitrogen deposition inputs to cropland at national scale from 1961 to 2020. *Sci Data* **10**, 488 (2023). [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02385-8](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02385-8) Data was derived from the following sources: * The source information is in the manuscript: Vishwakarma, S., Zhang, X., Dobermann, A. *et al.* Global nitrogen deposition inputs to cropland at national scale from 1961 to 2020. *Sci Data* **10**, 488 (2023). [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02385-8](https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-023-02385-8)