Reply to Castellano and David: Long-term fate of nitrate fertilizer and nitrate from agricultural catchments
We thank Castellano and David for their insightful comments (1) on our paper (2), in which they point out that short-term changes in land use and agricultural management can lead to rapid reductions in nitrate leaching from agricultural systems. We fully agree with Castellano and David that in diversified cropping systems, this N distribution may be different, potentially resulting in reduced nitrate leaching.