Managing Risks of Nitrates to Humans and the Environment

ISBN-13: 9781855738089 / Angielski / Twarda / 1999 / 348 str.

Opis

This volume concentrates on research information on the beneficial effects of nitrates and their fate in the environment. Adopting an integrated approach it covers the agricultural, environmental and medical aspects of this emotive topic. In addition, there is an extensive description of the biochemistry of nitrates in plants, animals and humans including the positive aspects as well as the hazards.

Spis treści

Part 1 The nitrate problem in agriculture: Nitrogen dynamics in natural and agricultural ecosystems; Predicting nitrate losses from agricultural systems: Measurements and models; Fate of nitrogen from manufactured fertilizers in agriculture; Using a rotational modelling system to explore the effect of straw incorporation on the efficiency of nitrogen use; Assessing the importance of soluble organic nitrogen in agricultural soils; Average fertiliser nitrogen use and estimates of nitrogen uptake by major arable crops in england and wales; Nitrate in ensiled grass: A risk or benefit to livestock production? The effects of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations on nitrogen cycling in a grassland ecosystem. Part 2 Environmental aspects of nitrates: The atmospheric nitrogen cycle and the role of anthropogenic activity; Nitrates in soils and waters from sewage wastes on land; The role of nitrates in the eutrophication and acidification of surface waters; Toxicity of nitrite to freshwater invertebrates; Sensitive areas, vulnerable zones and buffer strips: A critical review of policy in agricultural nitrate control; Considerations of the amino nitrogen in humic substances; Fertilizer and nitrate pollution in India; Status of nitrate contamination in ground water near Delhi: A case study. Part 3 Nitrate and health: The metabolism of dietary nitrites and nitrates; Identification of nitrate reducing bacteria from the oral cavity of rats and pigs; Potential risks and benefits of dietary nitrate; Metabolism of nitrate in humans: Implications for nitrate intake; Bacterial nitrate reductase activity is induced in the oral cavity by dietary nitrate; Antimicrobial effect of acidified nitrite on gut pathogens: The importance of dietary nitrate in host defence; Effects of nitrates and nitrites in experimental animals; Nitrate exposure and childhood diabetes.