Journal of Nanchang Institute of Technology
ISSN 1674－007610/15pp 51－54
Voloume 31，Number 1，February 2012
Received ：2012－01－30
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China （No．31160153and 31060109），and Funds from Key Laboratory of Vegetation Restora-tion and Management of Degraded Ecosystems ，SCBG ，CAS （201010）．
E-mail ：hbfan@nit．edu．cn
A review of nitrogen deposition research in China
WU Jianping 1，2，HUANG Guomin 3，LIU Wenfei 1，2，YUAN Yinghong 1，2，FAN Houbao 1，
2（1．Research Institute of Ecology ＆Environmental Sciences ，Nanchang Institute of Technology ，Nanchang 330099，China ；
2．Key Laboratory of Soil and Plant Ecology ，Jiangxi Provincial Department of Education ，Nanchang 330099，China ；
3．Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment ，University of Western Sydney ，Richmond ，NSW 2753，Australia ）
Abstract ：Chinese government has invested increasing funds on fundamental scientific research ，among which the nitrogen
deposition research in China blooms with the support of sufficient funds．However ，
little is known about the amount of fund that has been input to this field ，as well as the exact status of outcomes．This review focuses on the amount of funds supporting nitrogen deposition research from National Natural Science Foundation of China （NSFC ）and papers published in Chinese journals during the last decade （2000—2011）．The results indicate that both funding and papers have increased and shown a positive correlation between them．We suggest that increasing research funds would make a noticeable contribution to the pro-gress of scientific research．Some perspectives for future nitrogen deposition research in China are aslo proposed in this re-view．
Key words ：nitrogen deposition ；NSFC ；CNKI ；China
1Introduction
Nitrogen is one of the vital elements in life．However ，the majority of nitrogen is unavailable to most organisms due to the stable framework of diatomic nitrogen （N 2），which accounts for approximately 78%of the atmos-
phere ［1］．Anthropogenic activities such as burning of fossil fuels ，
artifical fertilizer application ，cultivation of nitro-gen-fixing legumes and other actions ，have altered the global nitrogen cycle ［2］．Over the past century ，atmospheric deposition of reactive nitrogen （mainly nitrogen oxide and ammonia ）had increased three to five folds ［3］．The a-mount of nitrogen deposition was even expected to increase further in many areas of the world ［4］．Recent studies have shown that increased nitrogen deposition plays an important role in affecting ecosystem processes and proper-ties．For example ，nitrogen deposition influences global carbon cycle ［5－6］，plant diversity ［7－8］，and soil nutrient re-tention ［9－10］．
Nitrogen deposition research in China is blooming in recent years ，
as is proved by the research papers pub-lished in internationl and domestic journals．Scientists from China are making a large contribution to understanding the effect of nitrogen deposition on biosphere ，which can be reflected by the amount of funding and the number of papers originated from China．One representative of them is Professor Jiangming Mo and his colleagues in South Chi-na Botanical Garden ，Chinese Academy of Sciences ，who have published more than twenty papers in international journals and numerous papers in Chinese journals．In this review ，we highlight the amount of funding supporting ni-trogen deposition research from National Natural Science Foundation of China （NSFC ）and papers published in Chinese journals in recent years．Our objective is to overview the status of nitrogen deposition research in China．
2Materials and methods
We did a search on China National Knowledge Infrastrcture （CNKI ）using nitrogen deposition as key word and then divided relevant papers into six groups by year （2006—2011）．Dissertations of doctorate and master degrees with reference to nitrogen depostion were also analyzed using the same method in CNKI database．For research funds
about nitrogen deposition ，
we did anthor search on the Internet-based Science Information System （ISIS ），National Natural Science Foundation of China （NSFC ），and the project information was collected from 2000to 2011．3Results and discussion
A total of 61projects conducting nitrogen deposition research were supported by NSFC from 2000to 2011．For the anterior six years （2000—2005），only one project in each year was funded by NSFC ，with an exception in 2001that no such funded project was supported （Fig．1）．Nevertheless ，from 2006on ，the number of funds significantly increased and showed an obvious rising trend．By 2011，there were 23projects funded by NSFC ，a ten-time increas-ing in comparation with 2006（Fig．1）．Those 61projects were funded to 32universities and institutes ，nearly half of which （15of 32）are research institutes belonging to the Chinese Academy of Sciences （CAS ），indicating the re-Fig．1Number of projects supported by NSFC from 2000to 2011in China
search strength of CAS in this field．
Amounting to 53scientists were supported
by NSFC．Two of them ，Professor Jiang-
ming Mo from South China Botanical Gar-
den ，Chinese Academy of Sciences and
Professor Xingkai Xu from Institute of At-
mospheric Physics ，Chinese Academy of
Sciences ，were supported three times dur-
ing this period．While three other scien-tists ，Professor Houbao Fan from Nanchang Institute of Technology ，Professor Hongwei Ni from Heilongjiang Acade-my of Science ，and Associate Professor Shulan Cheng from Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences were supported twice．
The total amount of fund supporting nitrogen deposition research from NSFC was more than twenty million RMB．From 2000to 2006，the amount of funding was less than one million RMB per year （Fig．2）．However ，the a-mount of funding increased to more than one million per year since 2007．The largest amout of funding was nearly twelve million RMB in 2011，which was more than the total amount of funding from 2000to 2010（Fig．2）．The rap-id growth of funding suggests that policy makers in China are encouraging scientists to explore the natural phenome-Fig．2The amount of funding from 2000to 2011in China
na and their underlying mechanisms．It was also
reported that Chinese government research
funds have been growing with an annual rate of
more than 20%［11］．The increased funds would
promote scientific research and help national e-
conomic success．In a word ，the number of pro-
jects and the amount of funding were both high-
est in 2011，sending out a good sign for re-searchers in China．Because 2011is the first year of the “12th five-year ”planning in China ，we can expect that the growth of funding for scientific research will contitune ，which could stimulate more scientific efforts in this field．
For papers about nitrogen deposition research in Chinese journals ，the total number was 160from 2006to 2011，of which 107papers were published between 2009and 2011（Fig．3）．Nanchang Institute of Technology
（NIT）published twenty-one papers on nitrogen deposition in Chinese journals during this period，accounting for 13．13%of all papers（Fig．3）．The NIT experimental plots established in2003in Sanming City，Fujian Province，are the second earliest permanent field plots in China．While the earliest permanent field plots are located in Zhao-qing City，Guangdong Province，which were constructed in2002by South China Botanical Garden，Chinese Academy of Sciences．We did not investigate other experimental sites in this review，but grantees usually establish their exper-imental plots after getting funds from NSFC and the work can be carried out successfully when they have sufficient funds．In addition，some projects can be completed in the laboratory or greenhouse．Computor-based models and me-ta-analysis are also popular methods to examine nitrogen deposition effects．A strong positive relationship is shown between the number of published papers and the amount of funding when using data from2006to2011（Fig．4），which indicates that increasing research funding really makes a noticeable contribution to the progress of scientific
research in China．However，more data are needed for further checking of this positive
feedback．
Fig．3Total papers published in Chinese journals on nitrogen deposition in China and in Nanchang Institute of Technology（NIT）from2006to
2011
Fig．4Relationship between numbers of published papers in Chinese journals and funding supported
by NSFC from2006to 2011
Fig．5Graduated doctors and masters who conducted dissertations about nitrogen deposition in China from
2006to2011
Although there were53grantees who got the funds
from NSFC，the graduated doctors in this field between
2006and2011were few．Only4doctors wer trained during
this period，much less than the mumber of graduated mas-
ters（Fig．5）．
4Future challenges and perspectives
We reviewed the effects of nitrogen deposition on car-
bon cycling and plant ecophysiology［12－13］and found that
terrestrial ecosystems respond and acclimate variously un-
der different temporal and spatial scales，indicating that more work should be conducted in nitrogen deposition for a comprehensive understanding in this field．Some perspectives are addressed here for future research．Firstly，Linking aboveground and belowground organisms．Relationships between aboveground and belowground subsystems play an important role in regulating ecosystem processes and properties．Effects of nitrogen deposition on ecosystems are consistently included between the aboveground and belowground subsystems．Understanding how ni-trogen depositon affects ecosystems requires a combined above-belowground approach．
Secondly，paying more attention to long-term experiments．Although much work has been done in this field，most of the studies focused on the short-term effect which is unable to explain the complexity of nitrogen deposition effects on organisms and ecosystems．Therefore，short-term responses and long-term acclimation should be considered simultaneously in field experiments in the future．
Lastly，conducting multi-factors experiments．Environmental changes will not occur separately．Increased nitro-gen deposition would exist with changes of rainfall patterns，exotic species invasion and concentrations of CO
2
．We need to focus more on the interactions between and among different environmental factors on ecosytem processes and
properties．
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中国氮沉降研究概况综述
吴建平1，2，黄国敏3，刘文飞1，2，袁颖红1，2，樊后保1，2
（1．南昌工程学院生态与环境科学研究所，江西南昌330099；
2．江西省高等学校土壤与植物生态重点实验室，江西南昌330099；
3．Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment，University of Western Sydney，Richmond，NSW2753，Australia）
摘要：中国政府近年来大幅度增加对基础科学研究的投入，而有关氮沉降的研究也在相关基金的支持下得到了快速的发展．但是有关中国氮沉降研究的现状，例如投入的资金数量和得到的研究成果较少．在分析近年来国家自然科学基金在这一领域资助情况的基础上，统计了发表在中文期刊上的相关文章数量．结果表明，基金数和文章的发表数量在近年来呈现增加的趋势，并且两者之间存在正相关关系．国家自然科学基金对申请者的名额及资金额度的增加明显有利于科学研究的进步．基于氮沉降的研究现状，也提出将来需要进一步研究的方向．
关键词：氮沉降；国家自然科学基金；中国知网；中国
中图分类号：X171．1文献标识码：A
作者简介：吴建平（1984－），男，博士，讲师，主要从事恢复生态学，土壤学相关研究．