Developing novel genetic approaches to improving crop nitrogen use efficiency

在作物农业中大量使用氮肥导致了巨大的环境和经济成本。这些肥料中的大部分氮（约70%）都流失了。其中大部分变成径流进入地表水和地下水。此外，氮肥是向大气中产生大量N2O和NO的原因，而加拿大约70%的氮氧化物是由农业土壤产生的。这些化合物对温室气体和酸雨的形成起着重要作用。最后，氮肥目前是加拿大谷类作物种植者最昂贵的投入成本，鉴于这一成本主要基于能源成本，未来几年可能会增加。

The use of large quantities of nitrogen fertilizer in crop agriculture leads to significant environmental and economic costs. The majority of the nitrogen from these fertilizers (approximately 70%) is lost. Much of this becomes runoff into surface and ground waters. In addition, nitrogenous fertilizer are responsible for the production of significant levels of N2O and NO into the atmosphere, with agricultural soils being responsible for approximately 70% of the NOx produced in Canada. These compounds contribute significantly to greenhouse gases and the formation of acid rain. Finally, nitrogen fertilizer is currently the most expensive input costs for Canadian cereal crop growers and given that this cost is largely based on the cost of energy, it will likely increase in future years.