Excess nitrogen deposition not only threatens biodiversity, but there are serious political and societal consequences when mitigation of the harmful effects fails, as demonstrated by the Dutch nitrogen crisis. In the Netherlands, ammonia deposition accounts for three-quarters of all nitrogen deposition. We present a comprehensive approach to advance our understanding of the diurnal variability of the ammonia concentration and surface-atmosphere exchange, combining advanced observations with turbulent resolved simulations at field-scale. Governing the diurnal variability are processes acting on local and non-local scales, spanning multiple disciplines, including meteorology, biology and chemistry. We take the first step towards connecting the surface-atmosphere exchange to CO2 uptake and plant transpiration. We furthermore develop a high-resolution turbulent resolved simulation framework with which we find that an emission plume can impact ammonia measurements over several (1-4) kilometers distance. With our approach, integrating advanced observations with turbulent resolved simulations, we pave the way for future ammonia research.