Take on the nitrogen challenge

The nitrogen challenge is one of the biggest environmental challenges of the 21st century. If we meet this challenge it can help us to tackle the climate, biodiversity and food crises. If we fail then it will make these threats worse. While we have to feed the world population, we also must consider how we manage nutrients and fertilisers to grow all this food. Inefficient and excessive use of fertiliser, particularly nitrogen, leads to environmental pollution, can exacerbate climate change, and threatens human and ecosystem health.

This Professional Certificate will provide you a basic understanding of effective nitrogen management.

The course will first introduce the global nitrogen challenge, how nitrogen has helped human civilization to develop, and how its misuse now threatens us.

Regardless of your background, you will learn core concepts about nitrogen and global change, their challenges and opportunities. Key topics include food security, climate change, air pollution, water pollution, and human health.

Good measurements are key for tackling the nitrogen challenge. After completing the first course, you will move on to the second, intermediate-level course where you’ll gain guided training in everything from greenhouse gas flux measurements, to ammonia flux measurements, to a number of plant and soil nitrogen measurements.

You will learn about the many different forms of nitrogen, such as nitrate, urea, and ammonium, the ways in which they can be monitored, and the ways in which better understanding of processes such as nitrification, denitrification, plant uptake and leaching can help us to better manage nitrogen for its benefits instead of its problems.

Our scientists will bring you guided tutorial videos on measurement methods and laboratory analyses - accompanied by detailed descriptions of procedures and calculations, as well as many downloadable materials for the field and lab.

You will see how the powerful greenhouse gas ‘nitrous oxide’ is measured in the field, the equipment used to monitor ammonia losses to the atmosphere, and the core methods for monitoring the amounts of available nitrogen in both soils and plants.

Taught by instructors with decades of experience in nitrogen and global change research, these world-class courses are a collaboration between leading experts in the UK and across South Asia as part of the UKRI-funded 'South Asian Nitrogen Hub' (SANH).

This Professional Certificate from the University of Edinburgh brings an engaging expert approach to the global challenges of nitrogen, as well as tackling them through good measurements.