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Environmental Sciences
France
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Environmental Sciences

D-Index
102
Citations
38074
World Ranking
332
National Ranking
7

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in France Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in France Leader Award
  • 2023 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in France Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Environmental Sciences in France Leader Award

Overview

Gilles Billen is affiliated with the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in France. Their research primarily focuses on environmental science and agricultural and biological sciences, with significant contributions to subfields such as environmental chemistry, ecology, soil science, industrial and manufacturing engineering, and water science and technology.

Their work addresses topics including soil and water nutrient dynamics, phosphorus and nutrient management, agriculture sustainability and environmental impact, soil carbon and nitrogen dynamics, marine and coastal ecosystems, agriculture and rural development research, and hydrology and watershed management studies.

Billen has published extensively, with notable recent papers including:

  • Reshaping the European agro-food system and closing its nitrogen cycle: The potential of combining dietary change, agroecology, and circularity (2021) in One Earth
  • Beyond the Farm to Fork Strategy: Methodology for designing a European agro-ecological future (2023) in The Science of The Total Environment

Other highly cited papers connected to the field include:

  • Crop production and nitrogen use in European cropland and grassland 1961-2019 (2021) in Scientific Data
  • Nitrogen dynamics in cropping systems under Mediterranean climate: a systemic analysis (2021) in Environmental Research Letters
  • Hydromorphology of coastal zone and structure of watershed agro-food system are main determinants of coastal eutrophication (2020) in Environmental Research Letters

Frequent co-authors in their research include Josette Garnier, Vincent Thieu, Luis Lassaletta, Eduardo Aguilera, and Alberto Sanz-Cobeña.

Billen's work is frequently published in venues such as HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), the Dépôt institutionnel de l'Université libre de Bruxelles, Environmental Research Letters, The Science of The Total Environment, and Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research).

Best Publications

  • Regional nitrogen budgets and riverine N & P fluxes for the drainages to the North Atlantic Ocean: Natural and human influences

    Robert Howarth;Gilles Billen;Dennis Swaney;Andrea Townsend

  • The European Nitrogen Assessment. Sources, Effects and Policy Perspectives

    Mark A. Sutton;Clare M. Howard;Jan Willem Erisman;Gilles Billen

  • Regional nitrogen budgets and riverine N & P fluxes for the drainages to the North Atlantic Ocean: Natural and human influences

    Unknown

  • 50 year trends in nitrogen use efficiency of world cropping systems: the relationship between yield and nitrogen input to cropland

    Luis Lassaletta;Gilles Billen;Gilles Billen;Bruna Grizzetti;Juliette Anglade

  • The fate of nitrogen and phosphorus at the land-sea margin of the North Atlantic Ocean

    S. W. Nixon;J. W. Ammerman;L. P. Atkinson;V. M. Berounsky

  • Global river nutrient export: A scenario analysis of past and future trends

    S. P. Seitzinger;E. Mayorga;E. Mayorga;A. F. Bouwman;A. F. Bouwman;C. Kroeze;C. Kroeze

  • Coupled biogeochemical cycles: eutrophication and hypoxia in temperate estuaries and coastal marine ecosystems

    Robert W. Howarth;Francis Chan;Daniel J. Conley;Josette Garnier

  • Nitrogen retention in rivers: model development and application to watersheds in the northeastern U.S.A.

    Sybil P. Seitzinger;Renée V. Styles;Elizabeth W. Boyer;Richard B. Alexander

  • Sources of nitrate in rivers draining sixteen watersheds in the northeastern U.S.: Isotopic constraints

    Bernhard Mayer;Elizabeth W. Boyer;Christine Goodale;Norbert A. Jaworski

  • Human alteration of the global nitrogen and phosphorus soil balances for the period 1970–2050

    A. F. Bouwman;A. F. Bouwman;A. H. W. Beusen;G. Billen

  • Determination of the biodegradable fraction of dissolved organic matter in waters

    Pierre Servais;Gilles Billen;Marie Claude Hascoët

  • Impacts of European livestock production: nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus and greenhouse gas emissions, land-use, water eutrophication and biodiversity

    Adrian Leip;Gilles Billen;Josette Garnier;Bruna Grizzetti

  • Phaeocystis blooms and nutrient enrichment in the continental coastal zones of the North sea

    Christiane Lancelot;Gilles Billen;A. Sournia;T. Weisse

  • Where did all the nitrogen go? Fate of nitrogen inputs to large watersheds in the northeastern U.S.A.

    N. Van Breemen;E.W. Boyer;Christine Goodale;Norbert Jaworski

  • Seasonal succession of diatoms and Chlorophyceae in the drainage network of the Seine River: Observation and modeling

    Josette Gamier;Gilles Billen;Michel Coste

  • Nitrous oxide emissions from secondary activated sludge in nitrifying conditions of urban wastewater treatment plants: effect of oxygenation level.

    Gaëlle Tallec;Josette Garnier;Gilles Billen;Michel Gousailles

  • Modelling phytoplankton development in whole drainage networks: the RIVERSTRAHLER Model applied to the Seine river system

    Gilles Billen;Josette Garnier;Philippe Hanset

  • The European Nitrogen Assessment

    Adrian Leip;Beat Achermann;Gilles Billen;Albert Bleeker

  • Nitrogen fluxes from the landscape are controlled by net anthropogenic nitrogen inputs and by climate

    Robert Howarth;Dennis Swaney;Gilles Billen;Josette Garnier

  • Food and feed trade as a driver in the global nitrogen cycle: 50-year trends

    Luis Lassaletta;Gilles Billen;Bruna Grizzetti;Josette Garnier

  • River basin nutrient delivery to the coastal sea: Assessing its potential to sustain new production of non-siliceous algae

    Gilles Billen;Josette Garnier

  • Sources of nitrate in rivers draining sixteen watersheds in the northeastern U.S.: Isotopic

    Bernhard Mayer;Elizabeth W. Boyer;Norbert A. Jaworski;Nico Van Breemen

Frequent Co-Authors

Josette Garnier
Josette Garnier Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS
Pierre Servais
Pierre Servais Université Libre de Bruxelles
Christiane Lancelot
Christiane Lancelot Université Libre de Bruxelles
Luis Lassaletta
Luis Lassaletta Technical University of Madrid
Bruna Grizzetti
Bruna Grizzetti Université Paris Cité
Mark A. Sutton
Mark A. Sutton Natural Environment Research Council
Albert Bleeker
Albert Bleeker Energy Research Centre of the Netherlands
Alexander F. Bouwman
Alexander F. Bouwman Utrecht University
Penny J Johnes
Penny J Johnes University of Bristol
Bruno Mary
Bruno Mary INRAE : Institut national de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement

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