ArticleNature communications2026
The long tail of nitrate pollution in groundwater challenges governance of global water quality.
Article in Nature communications, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Groundwater nitrate pollution threatens drinking water safety. Legacy nitrogen (N) in the vadose zone creates a "long tail" of leaching that can persist for decades after policy actions. Here we model global nitrate dynamics in groundwater from 1961 to 2100. By 2020, shallow aquifers had accumulated 162 ± 6 Tg N as nitrate, exceeding the WHO drinking water limit across 10% of global land area. This contamination is sustained by a large nitrate reservoir of 4037 ± 214 Tg N in the vadose zone, which will continue to generate new contamination hotspots for decades. Even under an immediate transition to zero-N-surplus, 4% of affected regions are projected to remain above the WHO limit beyond 2100. To guide effective governance, we classify global croplands into four management archetypes and identify tailored strategies that balance water quality, food security, and soil sustainability. These findings redefine the temporal scope of governance, identify priority regions, and provide a science-based roadmap towards safe groundwater.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.