Research Scientist Phil Gassman published in the latest issue of Environmental Research Letters. Gassman, with Taiwo Akinyemi and Levan Elbakidze (West Virginia University), Yuelu Xu (Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research), Haw Yen (Bayer Crop Science), and Jeffery G. Arnold (USDA Agricultural Research Service), authored the article "Cross-Watershed Leakage of Agricultural Nutrient Runoff."

The article uses an Integrated Assessment Model (IAM) that combines economic and process-based biophysical tools to quantify Nitrogen loading leakage across three major US watersheds and also assess losses in consumer and producer surplus from decreased commodity supply and higher prices when nutrient delivery to select coastal ecosystems is restricted. The authors find that reducing agricultural N loading in the Gulf of Mexico by 45%: (a) increases loading in the Chesapeake Bay and Western Lake Erie by 4.2% and 5.5%, respectively; and, (b) results in annual surplus losses of $7.1 and $6.95 billion with and without restrictions on leakage to the Chesapeake Bay and Lake Erie, respectively.

Cross-Watershed Leakage of Agricultural Nutrient Runoff
Taiwo Akinyemi, Levan Elbakidze, Yuelu Xu, Philip W. Gassman, Haw Yen, and Jeffery G. Arnold
Environmental Research Letters
doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/ad4e4a