ABSTRACT Increasing incidences of eutrophication and groundwater quality impairment from agricultural nitrogen pollution are threatening humans and ecosystem health. Minimal improvements in

water quality have been achieved despite billions of dollars invested in conservation measures worldwide. Such apparent failures can be attributed in part to legacy nitrogen that has

accumulated over decades of agricultural intensification and that can lead to time lags in water quality improvement. Here, we identify the key knowledge gaps related to landscape nitrogen

legacies and propose approaches to manage and improve water quality, given the presence of these legacies. Access through your institution Buy or subscribe This is a preview of subscription

article * Purchase on SpringerLink * Instant access to full article PDF Buy now Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout ADDITIONAL ACCESS OPTIONS: * Log in

* Learn about institutional subscriptions * Read our FAQs * Contact customer support SIMILAR CONTENT BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS IMPACT OF GROUNDWATER NITROGEN LEGACY ON WATER QUALITY Article

Open access 12 June 2024 ASSESSING GROUNDWATER DENITRIFICATION SPATIALLY IS THE KEY TO TARGETED AGRICULTURAL NITROGEN REGULATION Article Open access 06 March 2024 LONG-TERM ANNUAL SOIL

NITROGEN SURPLUS ACROSS EUROPE (1850–2019) Article Open access 10 October 2022 DATA AVAILABILITY Datasets for this research have been previously

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Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) in the frame of the collaborative Water JPI international consortium pilot call under the project name ‘Legacies of

Agricultural Pollutants (LEAP): Integrated Assessment of Biophysical and Socioeconomic Controls on Water Quality Agroecosystems’ (N.B.B., K.J.V.M., R. Brouwer, R. Bhattacharya, M.C.C., G.D.,

B.H.J., J.J., S.B.O. and P.V.C.) and by Lake Futures Project under the Global Water Futures umbrella, and provided through the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (N.B.B., P.V.C., R.

Brouwer and R. Bhattacharya). N.B.B. was also supported by a University Research Chair appointment and by an NSERC Discovery Grant. K.J.V.M. was also supported by startup funds at The

Pennsylvania State University. D.K.B. was supported by the NSERC Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Civil and

Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Nandita B. Basu & Danyka K. Byrnes * Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Waterloo,

Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Nandita B. Basu, Philippe Van Cappellen, David L. Rudolph & Ruchi Bhattacharya * Water Institute, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Nandita B.

Basu, Philippe Van Cappellen & Roy Brouwer * Department of Geography, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA Kimberly J. Van Meter * Earth and Environmental Systems

Institute, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA Kimberly J. Van Meter * Department of Economics, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Roy Brouwer *

Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg C, Denmark Brian H. Jacobsen & Søren Bøye Olsen * Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm

University, Stockholm, Sweden Jerker Jarsjö & Georgia Destouni * Department of Civil Engineering, CEMMPRE, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal Maria C. Cunha * Department of

Biological and Agricultural Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA Natalie Nelson * Center for Geospatial Analytics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

Natalie Nelson Authors * Nandita B. Basu View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Kimberly J. Van Meter View author publications You can also

search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Danyka K. Byrnes View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Philippe Van Cappellen View author

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Jacobsen View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Jerker Jarsjö View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google

Scholar * David L. Rudolph View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Maria C. Cunha View author publications You can also search for this author

inPubMed Google Scholar * Natalie Nelson View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Ruchi Bhattacharya View author publications You can also

search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Georgia Destouni View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Søren Bøye Olsen View author

publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS N.B.B. conceptualized the project, wrote the first draft, edited the paper and acquired the funding.

K.J.V.M. conceptualized the project, edited the draft and wrote sections, contributed materials/analysis tools and analysed data. D.K.B. contributed materials/analysis tools, analysed data

and edited the draft. P.V.C., R. Brouwer, G.D., J.J., R. Bhattacharya, B.H.J., M.C.C., G.D., N.N., S.B.O. and D.L.R. edited the draft. P.V.C. and N.B.B. acquired funding. CORRESPONDING

AUTHOR Correspondence to Nandita B. Basu. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. PEER REVIEW PEER REVIEW INFORMATION _Nature Geoscience_ thanks

Emily Bernhardt and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION PUBLISHER’S NOTE Springer Nature remains neutral with

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PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Basu, N.B., Van Meter, K.J., Byrnes, D.K. _et al._ Managing nitrogen legacies to accelerate water quality

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