Soil erosion is widely known for degrading land and reducing agricultural productivity. But new research shows it may also play a far more complex and important role in regulating the global nitrogen cycle, a fundamental process that supports plant growth and ecosystem health.
In a new review published in Nitrogen Cycling, researchers synthesized current scientific knowledge on how soil erosion affects nitrogen transport, storage, and transformation in terrestrial ecosystems. The study reveals that erosion can significantly reshape how nitrogen moves through landscapes, with important implications for soil fertility, environmental pollution, and climate change.
Nitrogen is an essential nutrient that supports plant growth and forms a critical component of global biogeochemical cycles. Soils serve as the largest terrestrial reservoir of nitrogen, storing and recycling this nutrient through complex biological and chemical processes. However, soil erosion redistributes vast quantities of soil each year, carrying nitrogen along with it and altering these cycles.
"Most previous research on soil erosion has focused on carbon cycling, while the effects on nitrogen cycling have received much less attention," said study author Minghua Zhou, a researcher at the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences. "Our review highlights that erosion is a powerful driver of nitrogen redistribution and transformation in soils."
Each year, billions of tons of soil are transported across landscapes by rainfall and runoff. Because most soil nitrogen is concentrated in the topsoil and bound to soil particles, erosion often removes nitrogen-rich material from slopes and deposits it in lower areas. This process can deplete nutrients in eroding zones while creating localized nitrogen accumulation in depositional areas.
The researchers found that erosion influences nitrogen cycling in several major ways. First, it alters nitrogen stocks by moving nitrogen-rich soil from one location to another. Second, it changes how nitrogen travels through soil systems, including transport through surface runoff and subsurface water flow. Third, erosion modifies soil properties and microbial communities that regulate nitrogen transformations such as mineralization, nitrification, and denitrification.
"These changes can reshape the entire nitrogen cycle within a landscape," Zhou explained. "Erosion affects soil structure, nutrient availability, and microbial activity, all of which determine how nitrogen is stored and transformed."
Microorganisms play a key role in these processes. Soil microbes control many nitrogen transformations that determine whether nitrogen becomes available to plants or lost to the atmosphere and water systems. However, erosion can disrupt soil aggregates and degrade soil structure, which in turn alters microbial communities and their ecological functions.
Despite these insights, the researchers emphasize that many aspects of erosion driven nitrogen cycling remain poorly understood. In particular, scientists still lack detailed knowledge about how microbial mechanisms respond to erosion and how these effects scale from small hillslopes to entire watersheds.
"Future studies should integrate soil erosion monitoring, ecosystem modeling, and microbial analyses to better understand nitrogen cycling across different spatial scales," Zhou said. "This knowledge will be essential for predicting how environmental changes such as climate change and land use shifts influence soil nutrient dynamics."
Understanding the connection between soil erosion and nitrogen cycling is critical for sustainable land management. Improved knowledge could help scientists and policymakers develop strategies to reduce nutrient loss, maintain soil fertility, and mitigate environmental impacts such as water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
The researchers conclude that soil erosion is not only a physical process reshaping landscapes but also a powerful force influencing the movement and transformation of nutrients across ecosystems.
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Journal Reference: Zhang B, Zhou M. 2026. Role of soil erosion in biogeochemical nitrogen cycles: a mini review. Nitrogen Cycling 2: e012 doi: 10.48130/nc-0025-0024
https://www.maxapress.com/article/doi/10.48130/nc-0025-0024
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About Nitrogen Cycling :
Nitrogen Cycling (e-ISSN 3069-8111) is a multidisciplinary platform for communicating advances in fundamental and applied research on the nitrogen cycle. It is dedicated to serving as an innovative, efficient, and professional platform for researchers in the field of nitrogen cycling worldwide to deliver findings from this rapidly expanding field of science.
