Academic Journal
Nitrification and urease inhibitors (NUIs) in soil and water: Environmental fate, distribution, and risk assessment.
| Title: | Nitrification and urease inhibitors (NUIs) in soil and water: Environmental fate, distribution, and risk assessment. |
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| Authors: | Wang X; School of Biosystems and Food Engineering, Agriculture and Food Science Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. Electronic address: xin.wang@ucd.ie., Forrestal PJ; Teagasc, Soils, Environment and Land Use Department, Crops Environment and Land Use Programme, Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford, Ireland. Electronic address: Patrick.Forrestal@teagasc.ie., Richards K; Teagasc Climate Centre, Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford, Ireland. Electronic address: Karl.Richards@teagasc.ie., Matse DT; Teagasc, Soils, Environment and Land Use Department, Crops Environment and Land Use Programme, Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford, Ireland. Electronic address: Dumsane.Matse@teagasc.ie., Cummins E; School of Biosystems and Food Engineering, Agriculture and Food Science Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. Electronic address: enda.cummins@ucd.ie. |
| Source: | The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2025 Nov 15; Vol. 1004, pp. 180796. Date of Electronic Publication: 2025 Oct 30. |
| Publication Type: | Journal Article; Review |
| Language: | English |
| Journal Info: | Publisher: Elsevier Country of Publication: Netherlands NLM ID: 0330500 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1879-1026 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00489697 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Sci Total Environ Subsets: MEDLINE |
| Imprint Name(s): | Original Publication: Amsterdam, Elsevier. |
| MeSH Terms: | Urease*/antagonists & inhibitors , Soil Pollutants*/analysis , Water Pollutants, Chemical*/analysis , Enzyme Inhibitors*/analysis , Nitrification* , Environmental Monitoring*, Soil/chemistry ; Fertilizers/analysis ; Risk Assessment |
| Abstract: | Nitrogen (N) fertilisers play a key role in food security by providing essential nutrients that enhance crop growth. However, excessive applications of N fertilisers can lead to N loss from the soil, resulting in potential air and water pollution. Nitrification inhibitors (NIs) and urease inhibitors (UIs) are chemical compounds with the potential to reduce ammonia loss, nitrous oxide emissions and nitrate leaching while improving N use efficiency. However, questions relating to potential risks to the environment and food chain have been raised. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the environmental fate and distribution of nitrification and urease inhibitors (NUIs) to help protect the long-term ecological balance and assess potential concerns regarding human health. This review examined the availability of NUIs in the European market and related government strategies, further highlighting the potential rise in demand for NUIs and their subsequent potential release into the environment. For NBPT, a relatively short half-life of up to 5 days has been observed. On the other hand, NIs like DCD exhibited significantly varied half-lives from days to months, primarily affected by multiple soil characteristics (e.g., temperature), thus highlighting the myriad of risk factors at play. This review details existing knowledge on potential degradation, leaching, and runoff of NUIs in soil to assist risk assessors and policymakers, helping identify potential exposure pathways and supporting the estimates of environmental concentrations for environmental and human receptors. (Copyright © 2025 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.) |
| Competing Interests: | Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. |
| Contributed Indexing: | Keywords: Degradation; Environmental exposure; Half-life; Inhibitor; Leaching; Runoff |
| Substance Nomenclature: | EC 3.5.1.5 (Urease) 0 (Soil) 0 (Soil Pollutants) 0 (Fertilizers) 0 (Water Pollutants, Chemical) 0 (Enzyme Inhibitors) |
| Entry Date(s): | Date Created: 20251031 Date Completed: 20251126 Latest Revision: 20251201 |
| Update Code: | 20260130 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.180796 |
| PMID: | 41172661 |
| Database: | MEDLINE |
| ISSN: | 1879-1026 |
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| DOI: | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.180796 |