N budget and soil acidification in China's cropland as affected by population and dietary structure changes

We evaluated the dynamics of the nitrogen (N) budget in China’s croplandsover the period 1981-2020. Building on this analysis, we projected future N budget dynamics from 2021 to 2100 under the influence of population and dietary structure changes (SSP1-SSP5). We then applied the commonly used “H⁺ budget” process model to quantify the soil acidification rate at the provincial level for 2021–2100. Specifically, our scenarios for 2021–2100 scenarios incorporated a range of N management strategies aimed at enhancing N use efficiency (NUE)