A city-level inventory of pollutant emissions from synthetic fertilizers and livestock manure (2000–2022): greenhouse gases, reactive gaseous nitrogen, eutrophying pollutants, heavy metals, and antibiotics

Abstract. Agricultural fertilizers and livestock manure are key sources of environmental pollutants in China, yet no comprehensive inventory has integrated emissions from both sources. To fill this gap, we developed an inventory using data fusion and advanced statistical techniques. This high-resolution dataset covers pollutant emissions from synthetic fertilizers (applied to 14 crops) and livestock manure (from pigs, cattle, sheep, and poultry) across all prefecture-level cities from 2000 to 2022. Our analysis estimated national emissions at 230.9 Tg·yr⁻¹, with CH4 and NH3 each contributing 92.0 Tg·yr⁻¹, together accounting for nearly 80% of the total load. Emission trends followed a three-phase pattern: growth until 2015, a decline by 2019, and a rebound after 2020, driven mainly by fluctuations in manure emissions. Source apportionment revealed that synthetic fertilizers were the main source of reactive gaseous nitrogen, nitrate leaching, and nitrogen runoff, with vegetables and cereals (rice, maize, wheat) as primary contributors. In contrast, manure-derived pollutants, especially phosphorus runoff and heavy metals, were significantly higher than those from fertilizers. Heavy metal emissions from manure were 77 times greater, with pigs and cattle as the dominant livestock sources. Spatially, fertilizer emissions were concentrated in major grain-producing regions, such as the North China Plain, while manure emissions were more prominent in livestock-intensive areas like Northeast and Central China. This dataset provides a comprehensive multi-pollutant inventory, offering a scientific foundation for targeted pollution control policies and coordinated mitigation strategies addressing both fertilizer and manure sources.