According to a new study published in Nature Geoscience, the use of fertilizers and pesticides on farmland are now the most important source of sulfur for the environment.

This source thus replaces what was previously the largest source of reactive sulfur: coal-fired power plants.

Acid rain

Reactive sulfur is a component of acid rain, for the biosphere. It can react quickly and, as decades of acid rain research has shown, affect ecosystem health and the cycling of toxic metals that pose a danger to wildlife and people.

In Xataka Science

How agriculture made us shorter than we were

As explained Eve-Lyn Hinckley, assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado, in the United States and lead author of the study:

It seemed that the sulfur story was over. But our analysis shows that sulfur applications on croplands in the United States and other countries are often ten times higher than the maximum sulfur load in acid rain. No one has comprehensively analyzed the environmental and human health consequences of these additions.

Researchers predict that increasing trends will continue in many farmlands around the world, in places like China and India that They are still working to regulate fossil fuel emissions.

Sulfur in agriculture is not going away. However, there is an opportunity to bring science and practice together to create viable solutions that protect long-term environmental, economic and human health goals.

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The news

The largest source of sulfur for the environment is no longer coal-fired power plants but agriculture

was originally published in

Xataka Science

by
Sergio Parra

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